Captain Danny Guarino- Tampa Bay Forecast

December live bait Fishing Charters Challenges 

December, Not unlike any other month, My charters start off with the all-important art of catching bait. Being a fishing guide in the Tampa area, I have to take extra care to insure that my charters have the  best bait available for the species of fish that will targeted on that day. This is one of the most important aspect for any live bait angler.

On this particular day in December we start at first light. Knowing that December can bring extremes to the weather a little extra planning is important. This trip was booked months in advance without knowalge of what the actual weather would be so this trip just happened to fall 3 days past the passage of a fairly strong cold front. We anticipated morning temperatures to be in the lower 50’s but worming to near 70 by mid-afternoon, a bit cool for this Florida Cracker but pleasant for our northern visitors. Wind was a bit of a factor, north east at about 15 knots. My plan for the day was to run to the Skyway Bridge and catch enough scaled sardines for the day. Because of cooler water temperatures (62 degrees) I had a feeling bait was going to be deep, I was right and With an incoming tide, the wind blowing from the opposite direction, bait catching was not easy. In fact it took 2 hours to catch enough bait for the day. This problem was not totally unexpected .The day before I made arrangements to meet my client at 10:00 am at the Resort at Little Harbor. This gave me over 2 hours to catch bait and I used all.

My recommendation to start the actual charter later was not entirely due to the anticipated issues with catching bait. The prior three days had been cold and the water temperature had dropped into the upper 50’s falling from the upper 60’s just prior to the passage of the cold front. This rapid change in water temperature can make catching fish difficult. The later start time will give the sun time to work to warm the relatively shallow water we would be fishing.

 My first stop was in Cockroach Bay. I chose this area because of the dark muddy bottom in about 3 feet of water. The dark mud tends to hold warmth a little longer than sandy areas. This area, in the past has been an excellent place to fish in the cooler months and is particularly good when the water temperatures are on the rebound as it was on this day. Unfortunately the spot was a bit disappointing and after an hour of fishing we had only managed 3 smaller snook with no signs of redfish or trout.

This prompted me to suggest that we head to the Little Manatee River and fish a few deeper spots. My thinking was that the water was still a bit cold and the deeper water may be a little warmer. So we were off making the short trip north from Cockroach Bay to the mouth of the Little Manatee River.

The first spot in the river was just horrible, by the time we arrived  we had a very strong outgoing tide this, along with the river flow made it hard to keep baits in the strike zone. This particular spot is in the main part of the river with water depth of about 10 foot. On colder days fish tend to school up in the deeper water because of the warmth. I’m sure there were fish at this spot we just could not present our baits to them in an appetizing manner. When bait is presented to fish it should look natural.

 I suggested that we move to another spot that was similar but not impacted by the fast outgoing current Again, we had no luck. If there were fish in this spot they did not want to cooperate.  We were 3 hours into our trip and had only caught three fish. I told the group I was going to take a bit of a chance and move to an area that had direct sunlight in shallower water.

We made our way into a secluded area on the north side of the river. The water depth is only 2 feet and getting there at low tide can be a problem, fortunately, we had about 3 hours of outgoing tide and only about 2 hours before we had to head back to the dock. Believe me I was feeling the pressure.

Sure enough when we arrived the water temperature was tad  warmer topping out at 68 degrees. I set the anchor and instructed the group to cast towards the banks near the mangroves. The whole area is lined with mangroves with oysters on the bottom. First cast and it was fish on and fish on for the next hour and a half. We ended up hooking about 20 snook with the largest being 27 inches. Turned out not to be a bad day, at least not in my book,

This is typical for December and my recommendation to all anglers is to make a plan taking into account Tides, Air Temperature, water temperature, don’t forget to have a contingency plan and by all means  prey for a little luck. It worked for me this time.

Capt. Danny Guarino a lifelong resident of the Tampa area and full time fishing guide on Tampa Bay. 813-956-2010 Capt. Danny co-host the Tampa Fishing Outfitters Radio show on Sports talk Tampa Bay 1040 The Team each Sunday Mornings.

Be safe out there.