Outdoors

Daily fishing report

By BILL HARDMAN
Published August 26, 2006

The gulf water temperature has peaked to the warmest that it usually reaches. The warm bottom conditions tend to push most of the legal-size bottom fish out to deeper water. Most of the sizeable grouper, snapper and hogfish are located in depths exceeding 100 feet. At these depths west of Pinellas County and in depths exceeding 80 feet in Pasco, 10- to 15-pound gag groupers and mangrove snappers more than 5 pounds have been consistently found.

In water shallower then these depths, scamp over the legal size are becoming easier to find. These smaller members of the grouper family make very good table fare. Scamp used to be hard to find in shallow waters throughout most of the late '80s and '90s. It seems that they were hit hard from overfishing, making it almost impossible to find legal-size scamp in waters less than 130 feet. In the past couple of years, they are easier to find.

This week, we found plenty of legal scamp on the Pipeline and the Pipeline Mitigation spots in 60 to 70 feet. The other grouper species, hogfish and snappers were too small to shoot. When spearing for scamp, make sure you pick the correct fish. The scamp looks a lot like its brother, the gag. One easy way to identify the scamp is the flared top and bottom of its tailfin. Consult with a fish ID chart before you pursue scamp for dinner.

Bill Hardman teaches scuba, spearfishing and free diving through Aquatic Obsessions Scuba in St. Petersburg. Call (727) 344-3483.

[Last modified August 26, 2006, 02:08:21]