During a week that started cooler and progressed to ‘travel bureau’ weather dominated by sunshine & low humidity, there was some warm mackerel news to report at the Sunshine Skyway Fishing Piers. Spanish mackerel were already present to begin the week, but the action heated-up dramatically as the days progressed.  Sheepshead action remained strong, but anglers had to sort numbers of aggressive smaller fish to get to a cooler of keepers.  Some squid are finally being taken in the overnight hours as visiting anglers shine lights and deploy glow-in-the-dark jigs to entice these tasty cephalopods.

Spanish mackerel started the week in the ‘just-legal’ size range, but rapidly progressed to fish exceeding the 20″ class as the week aged.  Jigs were the ticket this past week, with mackerel chasing white nylon jigs, tandem jig rigs or jig-and-fly combinations.   Mackerel were running deep in the water column, and some fish were indeed hugging the bottom during the stronger tidal pulls.  Jigs allowed to sink and then slowly advanced with long, slow and deliberate actions of the rod tip enticed these neutral mackerel to rise from the depths.  As the days advanced, Gotcha plugs and silver spoons were also effective for these early season deep water macks.

Bragging class spotted seatrout (often exceeding the 20” range) continue to be taken on the approach sections to both fishing piers.   Free-lining live shrimp or small scaled sardines took most of the fish, but many succumbed to ¼ oz. jigs with soft plastic shrimp tails dragged along the bottom.  Arrive late and fish the overnight hours and you will consistently find more winter trout success.  You can also seek the flashy cousin of the spotted seatrout in the deepest regions of both fishing piers. Cold weather patterns only seem to encourage the ravenous feeding patterns of silver seatrout, and their speckled cousins are not far behind!

Squid have begun to show in decent numbers and remain on a good bite at both fishing piers in the overnight hours. Squid jigs of various makes and models have been the most productive approach. The effectiveness of each model seems to be most associated with that particular jig’s ability to glow of its own volition or to reflect artificial light. Don’t ignore the use of Gotcha lures or pompano jig & fly style rigs for squid fishing, but adding some glow with lights, paints, or stickers will improve your hand no matter what approach you pick!

Neil Taylor
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