Captain’s Corner: Tyson Wallerstein

The Tampa Bay Times

Extreme heat the past few days has brought the water temperatures back up into the 90’s. Early morning starts are a must.  

Tampa Bay snook, redfish and jack crevalle are on the feed early on the outgoing tide. Target the bridges and rocky causeways leading into the bridge itself. These areas provide fast current and nearby depth witch will help to keep your bait “happy”. Be sure to avoid big shallow areas early in the day as water quality can be an issue for a stuffed live well.  

Later in the day the bait seems to do fine on  those expansive mangrove laden flats. Look for the fish to make their way under the trees on the incoming tide. Pitch lively pilchards or even better pinfish, to tempt the redfish and the occasional snook to come out of the trees for an easy meal. Other options would be a fresh ladyfish chunk or live shrimp  placed as deep under the mangrove canopy as you can get.  

Mangrove snapper are fairly easy targets around bridge pilings and fenders right now. Work the first part of the tide, both incoming and outgoing for the best chance at getting into a school of mangrove snapper. Small Pilchards on a small circle hook with a light split shot casted up tight to the structure  will usually fool the snapper. Occasionally we’ve had to drop down leader size, 20 lb. fluorocarbon to get more bites.  

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