Captain’s Corner: Jay Mastry

The Tampa Bay Times

Coming off a full moon and the arrival of spring has sprung a variety of angling opportunities.  For those looking to pick a fight with the baddest fish around these parts, tarpon are showing up to oblige.  There’s some roaming around the major bridges well inside Tampa Bay and this time of year we’re likely to find a few at the Skyway Bridge.  It won’t be long before we start seeing schools cruising along our gulf beaches.  Kingfish have begun showing up in better numbers.  There has been some reportedly caught midway out the ships channel, a few more in the “parking lot”, 5 miles off Blind’s Pass and some others in Clearwater both inshore and farther out.  Anglers on the Skyway Fishing Piers have begun getting in on the action.  Rising water temperature has drawn bait back onto the Snell Isle flats.  Pinfish are also finally returning after being nearly non-existent following the red tide outbreak.  We’ve had to anchor and chum em’ but it’s worth time spent.  While the full moon likely played a part in their aggression, perfect size 3 inch whitebait helped spark a mangrove snapper bite inside Tampa Bay that resulted in a few of the largest mangos we’ve caught this year.  The last couple hours of the outgoing tide along the rocky edges of the ships channel proved most productive.

Captain Jay Mastry