June Tampa Bay Fishing

Summer is upon us and the inshore fishing madness has already begun. This is the time of year when every type of angler can take advantage of the plentiful resource that’s right in our own back yard. This includes anglers fishing from shore, boat or wadding. No matter what your method is of getting a line wet, there are plenty of fish around to bend a rod.

The bait invasion is here and many of the flats in our area of the bay are filling up with sardines by the truck load. When the bait hits the flats like this it starts a feeding frenzy by a list of species such as Trout, Mackerel, shark and Cobia which have been showing up pretty regularly. This means that having the right tackle rigged and ready will increase your chances for a successful day on the water.

Snook

This is the best time of the year to target the larger trophy Snook now that they are schooling up and spawning near and around the big bridges. It’s catch and release only now and especially for the big fish so handle these big breeder females as least as possible. Hooking and landing one of these linesiders requires large bait and heavy tackle to manage the fish around the bridge structure.

Whole or cut Ladyfish (depending on the size) make an excellent bait choice for monster Snook. Large Threadfin and Scaled sardines will work as well but other species will take shots at them also. Any medium or heavy Tarpon style tackle will do fine against these fish that have an amazing burst of power when first hooked.

Tarpon

The poons are all over the Upper Bay from Picnic Island to Safety Harbor. We can fish for them day and night around the bridges or cast to rolling fish at day light in some of the various hot spots that they gather during the summer. Don’t expect to see the grey hounding pods like we get along the beaches and passes. These fish will be laid up relaxing and when they do roll it’s often very close to the surface not exposing much more than the tips of their fins.

They will go into a feeding bonanza from time to time where they can be seen sky rocketing through what ever unlucky school of fish they find appetizing. It’s a very cool thing to witness when they decide to blow up this way. Many times when they go into a feed like this there will be other species joining in the feast.

Trout and Redfish

The outside leading edges of the flats that have bait near by, have Trout sitting all over them and feeding like mad. Anchor up tide and wind of the flat and fish corked baits back to the edge. Some of these fish will be over 20 + inches so measure them closely if you’re out to take a few home for dinner. There is a lot of fish around with teeth right now so bumping up to 30 to 40 lb leader will help save a few hooks.

Grassy shore lines along the upper bay that have been holding Mullet will have Reds holding near by. On some of the really big tides we will see on days during the summer the Mullet will school up on grassy bottom close to shore and will have Reds, Trout and even Snook mixed in looking for an easy meal. Work these areas over with live or artificial bait either by boat or wadding.

Best of the rest

There has been a lot of Cobia hanging around making the chances of looking and actually finding some very strong. The fish have been showing up along the outer edges of the flats following Sting Rays, Manatees or just free swimming by themselves. Just about any structure such as a bridge or range marker will also have Cobia hanging out. Having a bait ready at all times will increase your chances of catching one when they show up.

For those looking to just bend a rod or escape the heat, the bridges have a ton of activity right now. From end to end you can catch just about any species of fish that lives in the bay. You will encounter everything from Snapper all the way up to Tarpon right now while fishing these structures.