Why fishing captains say 2023 has been ‘a weird year’ for fishing in Tampa Bay
This year, more specifically this summer, has been strange for fishing.
Patterns seem to be different than recent years and that has been leaving many veteran captains scratching their heads at times.
“It’s been a weird year,” said Capt. John Gunter who runs his charter’s out of the Manatee River. “Even offshore. I went three or four times for red snapper and it wasn’t easy. Lot of sharks and you have to move between spots often to find fish that want to eat.”
With the summer red snapper season over for recreational anglers, Gunter has switched his focus to his specialty, mangrove snapper in Tampa Bay.
“It took a while for them to show up. They’re back to pretty normal numbers now and we’re getting limit’s on most trips. It’s a lot of 15-to 17-inch fish but no 20s yet,” Gunter explained.
To get a limit of five mangrove snapper per person Gunter fishes mainly east of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge along the edges of the Tampa Bay shipping channel and sometimes the Skyway itself.
The north and south side of the shipping channel were turned into sharp limestone edges by the Army Corps of Engineers in 1971 during dredging, providing the perfect structure for the bottom-dwelling snapper.
“On slacker tides we’ll fish 20 to 25 feet of water, chumming and free lining with cut baits or small bait. When the tide gets moving we’ll use bigger jig heads 1/4 or 1/2 ounce, knocker rigs or chicken rigs down on the bottom. We seem to get smaller fish on the bottom and the bigger fish up in the column.”
A few challenges seem to present themselves to anglers fishing Tampa Bay as dolphins follow boats and look to get a hooked snapper for a free meal.
“Dolphins are a pain everyday. That’s going to be going on forever now. If it’s not sharks offshore it’s dolphins in the bay. Once they show up you have to move and they learned to follow you spot to spot.”
The other challenge Gunter has noticed this year has been the often leader-shy snapper have become even more so. He fishes light tackle spinning rods with 20 pound braid and long leaders.
The heavier the leader the thicker it is, and this year he’s gone lighter than ever to hide his tackle.
“We’ll get a few fish on 15 pound then we seem to have to go down to 10 pound to get bites. It’s hard to stop fish with 10 but that’s what we have to do to get bites. Everyone I’ve talked to seems to be saying the same thing. It’s a new year and new challenges we have to work through.”
Gunter says snapper season in the bay is entering the peak right now, and will be good into October until cold fronts cool off the hot Tampa Bay waters.