Jay Mastry

The Tampa Bay Times

Finally.  A crack in the window of opportunity last week provided a brief stretch of favorable weather.  Seemingly every fisherman with a boat took advantage of the light wind and calm seas.  Once again, boat ramps were jammed, bait shops were running out of shrimp, and boats could be seen heading offshore in all directions.  Buddies of mine crushed mangrove snapper in 80 feet.  Another group had impressive catches of hogfish, mangos and sheepshead on back to back trips in 45 feet.  Saturday morning we stayed well inside Tampa Bay while dodging dense fog banks that seemingly followed us wherever we went.  Five of us caught our limit of mangos on a short trip on the edge of the ships channel.  The ever present grunts and juvenile grouper were among our bycatch.  While whitebait would be my first choice when mangrove snapper fishing, until the water temperature rises they’re going to be scarce.  Shrimp is now the best alternative.  You won’t catch a sheepshead on a whitebait and rarely if ever will you entice a hot to eat one.  Each of them will eat a shrimp and they don’t have to be alive.  Often, depending on their size, just pieces can be most effective.  I like biting or pinching their tail off then threading them on my hook.  Moving forward if the weather will cooperate, this weekend could see some banner catches.  The current new moon phase we are in will provide some of the most productive tides of the moon.

Captain Jay Mastry