Tampa Bay Fly Fishing Report

Warm weather has returned after the 2 days of winter. It has been sunny and around 80 every day and the bay waters are still warm. There is abundant bait on the flats and the fishing is good.

All of my recent trips have been packed with action. We have also been finding some bigger fish!

Yesterday I had a full day of fly fishing with Robert Kwas. Robert has not had a lot of time in the salt as his passion is trout fishing in mountain streams. He quickly took to the longer casts and the strip setting and we had an exciting day of hunting.

If you are on the water just after daybreak the trout bite is very good. I poled Robert into one of my favorite holes as the tide was outgoing and we had instant action. We used Trout Fly Rods (#6 weight) and had mostly smaller sized Spotted Trout take our flies on about every cast. We caught a lot and had some great practice at casting into the wind and strip setting.

We used the rest of the day to mix it up between sight fishing the bay flats and banging the Mangroves. On the flats we had several opportunities at large cruising fish near oyster bars. In the Mangroves there is now steady action with juvenile to 20" snook. When you find a group that is eating they have been attacking on every cast. I have been rigging 2 rods for this fishing. One with a 4" to 5" Baitfish and the other with a small weighted shrimp imitation. The baitfish has been getting the most action but the smaller fly has been the key whenever you can spot a larger fish that is laid up.

Below is a small snook which came on an EP Baitfish pattern

Over the last 10 days or so I have taken several much larger snook and reds with the smaller shrimp fly. (2.5" -3")

There is also real good action with some of the fun to catch non target species. When moving about I have been stopping in the Blue Water just on the drop off of the flats. I does not take long to find a willing school of Jacks or Ladyfish to attack your flies. There have been some big ladies about that are a real handful on light fly tackle.