Fly Fishing in Tampa Bay has been getting better but Red tide blooms have been popping up spontaneously making it hard to pattern fish. Where fish were one day, they are gone the next on the Gulf side as wind and tide push existing blooms across different real estate. In the bay, things are jamming! Again, it’s amazing how quick the fish seem to come out of the cracks and back to where they should be.
The night bite remains hot for snook especially on lights in a little deeper water and get a lot of moving water. Using the tide/current to present your fly always works better than fishing lights with little flow. Outgoings usually have some shrimp in the last half of the tide otherwise it’s a small baitfish imitation. Light tackle anglers do best with a soft jerkbait nose hooked with a small J-hook if there isn’t any floating grass otherwise an offset worm hook is the go-to.
Tarpon showed up as soon as the bait appeared but weren’t in numbers like every other year. The fish we found were extra snappy and wanted to play as the problem we have has a lot of people off the water. It’s an understatement to say they are an amazing critter and deserve to be taken care of.