Find your way back , a great song by Starship best describes October and November on Tampa Bay. Baitfish finds its way back every fall with pelagic species in tow. Kingfish, Mackerel and Bonita are like clockwork.
These drag screaming speedsters are thrilling game and Captains Steven’s primary targets on many trips the next 30 days. Saturday we were greeted with a solid 15 kt easterly wind and an incoming tide which made lower Tampa Bay very bumpy.
I decided to gather bait and stay in protected waters. Beautiful white baits were simple to gather and took less than 10 minutes to catch. I wish every trip bait would be so easy to net. A quick run to Tierra Verde and the protection of the ICW (inter costal waterway) had us in position to catch and be comfortable at the same time. The very first bait resulted in a feisty sea trout within 15 seconds of hitting the water.
The trout while not large made up for it with big quantities attacking bait after bait. On this same spot bluefish, sharks, mackerel even flounder were taken. Live baits fly lined or under a float or soft plastic jerk baits like the DOA shrimp or Cal jigs were killer. I observed terns diving a mile west so we went to investigate and as advertised the macks were there. White baits on long shank hooks worked cast after cast until we changed to silver spoons. Many casts had 3-4 macks chasing! Cut offs are common so I beef up to 40 pound leaders. We left the mackerel biting.
Our last stop was a local dock a tip from Captain Jim Fesperman. Again the first bait in was inhaled immediately. A 18” grouper started the dock party. Over the next 30 minutes we took grouper to 21” and trout to 17”. We hooked to large fish we never saw and lost in the pilings using hand size pinfish for bait.
