Snook fishing has been great; tarpon, not so much

It’s been an interesting summer in the shallows for local anglers. Summertime usually means inshore anglers target gulf bound snook, tarpon and redfish, but two of the three were a bit of a mystery.

The good? Snook fishing. It’s been one of the best years I can remember for reports of numbers and size of snook. Plenty of fish remained inshore through the spawning season, and this fall should be phenomenal snook fishing.

The bad? Tarpon season. It was considered a bust by most, as most of the silverkings seemed to prefer other waters than Tampa Bay. Last year Boca Grande was considered a down season while Tampa Bay was above average. This year the opposite has happened.

Redfish reports have slowly started to pick up. But the flats are hot. The heat of the day has regularly pushed water temperatures into the 90’s around the flats. This makes it tough for anglers to target them with live bait routinely dying in the oxygen deprived water.

Staying off the flats means anglers have resorted to sticking around passes and deeper waters of Tampa Bay. As a result, flats fishermen have changed the fish they are targeting. Some are going after fish more commonly seen offshore.

“There are tons of mangrove snapper on all the rock piles and in the passes,” says Capt. Josh Prunier. “The gag grouper fishing inshore has been so good, too. From Sarasota Bay to Tampa Bay trolling or free lining pins around structure has produced good fish.”

While fishing east of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge for gag grouper, Prunier ran into an unusual fish for the dead of summer.

“We were fishing for grouper on a rock pile near the edge of the shipping channel in about 10 feet of water,” Prunier said. “We were just using 30-pound leader and a 3/0 circle hook when the reel was absolutely smoked.”

It was apparent a structure seeking grouper wasn’t on the other end. The fish nearly spooled the reel, and when it reached the boat, Prunier couldn’t believe his eyes.

“A 39-pound kingfish. I think he was lost,” Prunier said. “The only reason for one to be around in the summer would be all the bait we have around right now.”

The lost kingfish was a welcome reward for the shallows of the bay, and one not normally seen in August.

And believe it or not, close to the area where Prunier and crew caught the kingfish, anglers have been seeing the invading American red snapper.

I’ve always felt as they continue their eastward trek to shallower waters from the depths of the Gulf of Mexico, it would be only a matter of time before they were caught in the bay. And one angler says to have caught not only one, but four red snapper on the same spot only a few hundred yards from shore. A bit undersized, he released them to live another day.

If you’re headed out over the next month and looking for fish to target inshore, maybe a day away from the flats is in the cards. Find your favorite structure around the bay, be it a bridge, rock pile, wreck or ledge, and you never know what you might catch.

This story was originally published August 19, 2017 at 7:45 PM with the headline "Snook fishing has been great; tarpon, not so much."