Tampa Bay Fishing Report January 2013
“Let’s Go Fishing” – “CaptainWoodyGore.Com”
Snook (Closed) – You can still catch snook however, if the water temperatures are lower than normal you might want to fish areas like creeks, rivers, and rivers; especially those with muddy bottoms and inshore canals, and deep water docks. Another location where snook like to hang out on cool or cold days is a sunny sandy bottom along a shallow shoreline where the sun quickly warms the water.
Redfish – You can usually find redfish during the winter and sometimes cut bait, shrimp and artificial lures are your best bet. Many times they’re not going to be the larger fish but many rats can make a good fishing trip especially for the kids. Don’t forget canal, creeks, deeper oyster bars and docks.
Spotted Sea Trout – Tampa Bay seems to be full of nice sea trout especially around broken bottom grass flats with nice pot holes. Plenty of trout should show up through the winter months. Most grass flats with moving water seem to produce the best bite using shrimp free-lined or under a popping cork and artificial lures. However some deeper rivers, channels, canals, and creeks will hold nice fish and often plenty of silver trout.
Mackerel, Cobia, Sharks – When trout fishing the flats it’s not unusual to a decent mackerel bite going. They like hanging around the chasing the schools of glass minnows. Also many times we’ve landed certain really nice pompano off the same trout flats. When running the flats looking for your favorite spot be sure to watch the wake behind your boat checking for pompano skipping in the wake. The power plants are the place to look for cobia and sharks during the winter months. But be alert as other species frequent the warm water discharges. During the winter months on the flats we still get the occasional mackerel and plenty of bluefish, ladyfish and jacks.
Sheepshead – Sheepshead should start moving in for the spawn and we should begin to see some nice sized fish on the rock piles throughout the bay. Look for them around bridges, pilings, docks, oyster bars and artificial reefs.
“Give Me a Call & Let’s Go Fishing” – 813-477-3814 Captain Woody Gore is the area’s top outdoor fishing guide. Guiding and fishing the Tampa, Clearwater, St. Petersburg, Tarpon Springs, Bradenton, and Sarasota areas for over fifty years; he offers world class fishing adventures and a lifetime of memories.
Single or Multi-boat Group Charters are all the same. With years of organizational experience and access to the areas most experienced captains, Woody can arrange and coordinate any outing or tournament. Just tell him what you need and it’s done. Visit his website at: WWW.CAPTAINWOODYGORE.COM, send an email to wgore@ix.netcom.com or give him a call at 813-477-3814.