As the Silver Kings continued their annual invasion of the Tampa Bay Estuary this past week, the theme from JAWS could also be heard playing in the background at the Sunshine Skyway Fishing Piers…  Tarpon continued their hold on one of the best bites happening at the piers, but medium to large sharks of many species started to gain traction and edged into a close second place.  Mangrove snapper size finally started to increase later in the week – after several seeks of filtering through numbers of short (or close) fish.  Grunts & porgies added to the mango seekers to add some meat to the coolers.  Spanish mackerel were once again tough to pattern, and even the better mackerel anglers were frustrated.  Plenty of ladyfish & bluefish did take presentations intended for mackerel, so rod-bending action was available.  Finally, there have been plenty of cobia around the piers for a few weeks, and prepared anglers have been landing some of the brown clowns.

After a few weeks of visitors having to sort through short mangrove snapper in order to bag a few keepers, that pattern finally started to ebb with the latest full lunar cycle.  Short snapper are still being caught, but this past week saw numbers of fish ranging from 12″ to nearly 20″ during both daytime and nighttime bites.  Plenty of anglers were fishing main bridge pilings on the incoming tide and moving to artificial reefs during the outgoing.  Perhaps the best bite was had by mango hunters willing to simply catch fresh bait, weather the crowds and fish the late evening / overnight incoming tide on both the closed pier span and main bridge pilings.  The most successful visitors caught fresh bait (scaled sardines or threadfin herring) and kept it handy on ice.  Knocker rigs using 1 oz. to 2 oz. egg sinkers and 1/0 to 2/0 circle or octopus style hooks were the mainstay.  Leader selection for snapper fishing at the piers varies by about as much as the color of a vehicle – some anglers are willing to fish 15 lb. fluorocarbon for the most bites while others want 30 lb.+ test to horse the most fish out of cover.  Generating bites versus landed fish is a debate amongst anglers that will never be solved in a weekly fishing report.

Big sharks made their presence known at the Skyway Piers this past week, with many large fish landed and even more lost due to outmatched tackle.  Greater & lesser blacktip sharks (spinners & blacktips) were around in great numbers this past week.  The ‘black tip’ nomenclature that anglers often find so confusing is actually quite simple.  Bulls, spinners and blacktips all have ‘black tips’ on their fins at some point in their life stage…  Bulls have a rounded snout and spinners have an eye very far forward on the head.  These two species are more highly-regulated by the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) than the (lesser) blacktip shark.  Look at the fantastic charts in FWC publications for guidance, but once you have seen all three sharks, you will see the ease in identification.

Many visitors to the Sunshine Skyway Fishing Piers ask how big of a fish might be landed from the piers?  Almost all are shocked when I say that the largest fish I have seen landed are in the 10 foot range.  I missed a massive sawfish release about two years ago, but was told that fish could have been over 14 feet long with the bill.  Of course even larger beasts have been taken over the storied history of the piers.  Landing big sharks at the piers takes great bait, tackle and teamwork.  Fresh stingrays or bonito presented on a balloon can attract the largest predators entering Tampa Bay.  Once hooked-up, the tackle & team come into play as the fish is edged towards the rock retaining walls for release.  I saw this orchestra in play this past week as a group of seasoned shark wranglers caught-and-released a bull shark in the 8 foot range.  Without the teamwork & experience these cats had developed, the odds of the fish being landed were almost negligible.

Cobia have made a slightly late appearance at the piers this season, but plenty of fish are now being spotted, hooked and landed.  Complaints of short cobia grabbing a bait in front of the large one are the type of grievances that could occur all day long.  That was the story this past week, with several short fish being landed, but some very large fish either lost or unwilling to take the bait presented…  When cobia are around the piers in numbers (as they have been lately) a two-tiered approach is about the best thing you can offer.  Keep one medium-heavy spinning outfit rigged with a buck tail jig tipped with a  black or purple bass worm (an eel-like trailer).  The worm will resemble an eel as you toss the jig ahead of the fish and cross the line of sight.  As another option, straight rig a 5/0 – 7/0 hook on 50 lb. monofilament line.  Rig a pinfish, pigfish or small jack through the snout and place it in a 5 gallon bucket with the rod alongside.  Run the live bait in front of the fish if it first refuses the jig & eel presentation.

Paul Bristow
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