his time of year with more windy days than calm ones, getting out and wrestling with some fish you can catch, keep and eat can be a challenge.  Fortunately for us mangrove snapper and sheepshead have generous size and bag limits.  They’re abundant here now and many can be caught inside the somewhat protected waters of Tampa Bay .  Lucky to have as much submerged structure as we do scattered throughout the entire bay provides the opportunity to get in on the action even on the less desirable weather days.  Whether a reef, rock pile, bridge or dock, where the structure is, you’ll find the sheepies and mangos.  If not acquainted with some of these sites – go to your tackle shop and pick up a “Tampa Bay Area Inshore Fishing Chart”.  It’ll dial you into many of the wrecks, reefs, ledges, fish havens and obstructions.  Check the wind direction and then plan your trip accordingly.  You’ll want to fish spots more comfortably on the lee side of the wind, preferably sheltered by a large land mass.  You’ll weed through a bunch of juvenile mangos and some sheepshead too while getting the ones you want.  On our last trip last week we caught several of the largest sheepies we’ve caught so far, and that action will continue through this month.  All of our sheepshead ate shrimp and most of the mangos too.  Some of the larger snapper preferred chunks of frozen sardines.

Captain Jay Mastry 

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