Keep a variety of live baits handy right now

By Doug Hemmer
Published April 6, 2007

Springtime is here. All the fish that left during the winter are now returning to west-central Florida. This is probably the only time of the year when you can target snook, redfish, trout, tarpon, mackerel, sharks, kingfish, breeder redfish and permit on any given day. The trick is knowing when and where these fish are going to show.

Most of the snook are moving out of the rivers, residential canals and creeks on the east side and upper parts of Tampa Bay. In the upper parts of the bay, you can find snook moving into Double Branch, Rocky Point, the Kitchen, western parts of the Gandy Bridge and Weedon Island. Most of these snook will feed best during a major or minor period. A free-lined scaled sardine works well. Scout these areas until you find the schools. Most of the time you will find them where they were in years past. Use some of the sardines to live chum the area. Then cast a sardine, hooked through the nose, next to where the snook are popping. Don't set the hook until you see your line start moving.

The redfish and trout are already here. The trout will start feeding on live shrimp and whitebait instead of artificial baits. It's not that they won't strike a lure, but the offer of live bait can turn a slow bite into a feeding frenzy. The redfish will take fewer shrimp when the whitebait and sardines invade the flats. Until that time you may want to try pinfish and finger mullet. Fishing with live shrimp gets harder once the pinfish return to the flats. This will give the redfish more time to find your baits. Early spring is the best time to live chum the redfish with whitebait. They have not had schools of whitebait to feed on all winter. Keep your chumming low to the water. Throwing baits high in the air will attract birds that will dive and spook the redfish.

Tarpon are showing up around the Skyway Bridge. During the start of the run, you'll want to use pinfish as bait. A free-lined pinfish cast up current of rolling tarpon will outproduce most bait for the first part of the season. Pinfish will become less productive when the schools of threadfins show around the bridge. As the season moves into May and June, look for them to feed on ladyfish, shad, threadfins, scaled sardines and crabs. The ladyfish and shad work best when bottom fishing. The threadfins and sardines are used when free-lining in a strong current. The crabs worked great under a cork or free-lined.

The kingfish, mackerel and sharks inhabit the same areas. Look for birds feeding on the surface. Then look for mackerel striking the surface. When you find this, you probably have found all three. The mackerel and kingfish will follow the bait schools. The birds will work the areas where the mackerel and kings have been feeding. They will flock over the surface picking up the pieces of baitfish left by the feeding frenzy. The smell of fresh cut baits will attract the sharks. When you locate this kind of action, chum with live whitebaits. This will keep the fish from moving away. Once the mackerel start striking the chum, free-line a few nose-hooked whitebaits to get the mackerel feeding. Use a chunk of fresh mackerel rigged to a short piece of wire and let it drift behind the boat. This will give you a shot at the sharks while you fish for mackerel. If you have some sardines or threadfins, free-line a few baits on rods that have 200 to 300 yards of line and a steel leader. Sometimes the mackerel and shark action will be interrupted by a kingfish.

The permit can be found in the mouth of Tampa Bay. They won't be far from where you see the tarpon rolling during a strong afternoon outgoing tide.

Doug Hemmer charters out of St. Petersburg. Call (727) 347-1389.

[Last modified April 5, 2007, 10:11:44]