Captain’s Corner: Tyson Wallerstein

The Tampa Bay Times

Inshore fishing remains good through ought the Tampa Bay waters. Catch and release snook fishing is really getting good with the recent temperature drop. More big fish are making their way into the creek mouths and the traditional shorelines that offer a transition into the back waters were the snook spend the winter months. The water temperature is perfect, right about 75 degrees give or take a couple of degrees during time of day. The fish are responding well to live chumming with pilchards, free-line your baits out amongst the chummers to fool the bigger fish.

The redfish bite remains strong in Tampa bay as well as the intercoastal waterway. Afternoon high tides this week will have the fish cruising the mangroves. Target points and small openings in the mangroves and allow your bait to swim back as deep as you can. Live pilchards work great as will a frisky pinfish.

Stone crab traps now line the beaches and nearshore waters. The floats the mark the traps attract tripletail this time of year. Running the traps for any amount of time is sure to reveal a few of these curious fish. They are willing to strike an artificial as well as a small pilchard or shrimp. The Tripletail minimum size is 18 inches which is a pretty big tripletail, if you’re looking to keep these fish its fairly easy to judge if they are keepers or not when spotted.

Capt. Tyson Wallerstein
Flats Monster Inshore Fishing
(727) 692-5868
capt.tyson@hotmail.com
www.Flatsmonster.com