Springtime is the best time to fish

By LARRY HOFFMAN

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 27, 2001

April and May are my favorite months of the year to fish on the west coast of Florida.

Tarpon are being caught at the Sunshine Skyway bridge. Permit still can be found around near-shore shipwrecks such as the Betty Rose and the Sheridan. Kingfish and Spanish mackerel are thick near beaches and reefs. And with the arrival of the shrimp boats, blackfin tuna have been "smoking" our reels.

Good catches of grouper and snapper have been reported off ledges and hard-bottom areas in 55 to 70 feet of water. With offshore water temperatures around 72 degrees, grouper action should be strong this weekend. Use frozen sardines or squid to get the grouper to feed, then switch to live bait.

Most ledges, channel markers and shipwrecks are holding tons of live sardines, blue runners and cigar minnows. Use a gold hook rig to catch live bait. Don't spend money this time of year buying live bait.

Blackfin tuna have been a hot ticket this week. The key to tuna fishing is to use live sardines for bait and find a shrimp boat that has been culling its catch. Pull up behind a shrimp boat and free-line a live Spanish sardine on a No. 3 or 4 aught hook and hold on. The blackfin tuna are running from 20 to 30 pounds and will give plenty of fight. They are extremely good to eat. Give each boat about 20 minutes, then move on to the next boat. It helps to cut up a few frozen sardines to get the tuna to feed. However, this additional chumming will attract bonita.

Kingfish still are migrating north and are on just about any reef, wreck or piece of hard bottom holding bait schools. I prefer live baiting to catch kingfish. Try fishing in and around the big schools of bait that are migrating north. Use a down rigger to better cover the water column. The Betty Rose, Egmont Channel, Clearwater hard bottom and Indian Shores reef are holding kingfish. Fishing on local piers is very good with 30-pound kings, flounder and trout being caught at the Redington Long Pier.

-- Larry "Huffy" Hoffman charters the Enterprise out of Kingfish Wharf, Treasure Island. Call (727) 709-9396.

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