The Tampa Bay Times
We are finding sheepshead in both the offshore and inshore areas. Our spearfishermen are running across good quantities of sheepshead out to as deep as 40’ of water. The bigger ones are on the limestone ledges in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM). Some big sheepshead are also located around the structures in the mouth of Tampa Bay. The bottom temperatures in the GOM out to 40’ of water registered 62 degrees on our scuba dive computers. Along with the populations of sheepshead are also mangrove snappers. These snappers are on most structure. The bigger mangrove snappers are on the bigger structure. Artificial reefs and deeper undercut ledges are holding the bigger snappers. Gag groupers and red snappers are off limits, as their recreational season is closed. One of our biggest problems on our dives was getting past the red snappers and gag groupers. There are plenty of the off-limit fish in front of the ledges and mixed in with the legal fish. We also used rod and reel during our dive trip and it was very difficult to bring up a mangrove snapper without gag groupers getting to our baits first. Hogfish are on some of the hard bottom and limestone ledges and we managed to get our limit of hogfish. We found two spiny lobsters, one under a small ledge and the other on a big section of ledge. The spiny lobster season is still open until the last day of March.
- Jay Mastry - March 26, 2024
- Captains Corner, Gorta - March 23, 2024
- Dave Zalewski - March 12, 2024
