Captain’s Corner: Tyson Wallerstein

Inshore water temperatures shot up this past week due to the lack of any rain. Abandoning the flats and looking for spots closer to deep water and a bit of structure is a good idea when the shallows get over 90 degrees.

Snook fishing in Tampa Bay has been really good despite the heat. Rocks along the bridge approaches are perfect snook habitat. Snook will be scattered all along the approach but certain features will condense them better. Freelining pilchards right up close to the rocks has been yielding not only snook but the occasional redfish and plenty of nice trout.

Tarpon are showing up in deeper areas along the Bay bridges and artificial reefs. When the wind goes slack any time of the day the tarpon have been rolling and easy to spot. Drift thru the fish and cast slow sinking plugs or anchor and fish chunks of mullet on the bottom.

Black tip shark fishing has been really good recently. Plenty of 3 to 4 foot blacktips can be chummed up through ought the inter-coastal. Look for the 5 to 8 foot basins off the outer edges of the flats to be most consistent. Deploying a frozen chum block will bring the sharks to you on a good moving tide. Blacktips love a frisky pinfish or grass grunt, we typically fish them on a 60 pound leader and a 6/0 circle hook on a medium action rod, you can run a small piece of wire if you want but surprisingly we get very few cut-offs with the mono leader.
Capt. Tyson Wallerstein
Flats Monster Inshore Fishing
(727) 692-5868
capt.tyson@hotmail.com
www.Flatsmonster.com