Captain’s Corner: Mike Gore

The Tampa Bay Times

The rain has cooled off Tampa Bay lately and made the water tannic in color. Do not be concerned. If anything, it is a welcome sight. With all the fresh water we have pouring into Tampa Bay, look for water changes. This will be a good indication where you have good water flow. The flow pushes bait around on the incoming and outgoing tides. Make sure to set up where you can present your bait to look the most natural. Cast up into the current and let the bait drift along a point or mangrove line.

With the rain helping to keep the water temperature down; there is still a good Snook bite on the flats. Tampa Bay is full of small scaled sardines and the Snook seem to be keying in on them. If all you have is big bait then try trimming the tail. That will help slow them down. Cut bait on the bottom has also been working well.

Some nice speckled trout have been caught in depths of 5 to 8 ft. Almost all have been slot fish with some being over 20 in. Try using a popping cork. You almost have to with the bait being so small. Just make sure to leave about 4ft of leader under the cork. They have been holding in the deep grass.

If the summer heat is just too much for you to handle, then trying fishing at night. The fish become a little more active when the water cools down. Snook, redfish, and trout can all be caught while fishing docks. A lot of these docks have lights on them which will be holding bait. Fishing at night can also improve your fishing during the day. The fish you find on the docks at night will usually fall off onto the nearest flat during the day.

Capt. Mike Gore