The Tampa Bay Times

The action has been excellent.   With closures:  Better opportunities than we have seen in many years.    Pompano.  Trout.  Mackerel. Even some redfish in the mix.    We have basically “great variety trips” right now.     Trout remain the easiest choice.    Throwing a combination of jigs and topwater lures:  Big trout are everywhere.   Closed to harvest:   Trout are just plain easy right now.     Pompano action is getting better.  It is that time of year.   Use a pompano jig and teaser rig and bounce it on the bottom and pompano are cooperative if you find them.      Pompano are one of those fish that can be taken home.   The other one:  Flounder.   Flounder have appeared in their best numbers in five years.   With the influx of baitfish, an influx of more flounder.   Use that 1/8-ounce jighead with a soft plastic tail or your choice and jigs worked painfully slow get strikes from flounder.   Mackerel are around the mouth of Tampa Bay.    It is time to “watch for birds.”  The baitfish arriving, mackerel will be feeding and the birds will flock to that area.    Redfish are in the best shape they have been in seven years.    The closure to harvest, a good thing, it is easier to catch a redfish than it has been in a long time.     I use the 1/8-ounce jig with a three inch paddletail.    Go shallow to find them.    They will be in two feet of water or less.    The action has been the best I have seen in fifteen years.   Closures:  Definitely helped.    Get out on the action!

Neil Taylor
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