Long Island Kayak Angler: Tampa Bay, FL - February 17

Sunset over the Little Manatee River, Pirate's Point, Ruskin, FL

Water clarity in upper Tampa Bay. The strong offshore winds didn't impact the clarity of the northern shoreline.

Old Tampa Bay. Picture taken north of Courtney Campbell Causeway.

Pirate's Point Fishing Resort - Ruskin, FL.

Tampa Bay sheepshead caught on a tog jig with a fiddler crab.

I went on a four night family vacation to Tampa, FL from February 16 - February 20, 2013. For the first two nights, we stayed on Pelican Island / Rocky Point. This area is located on Old Tampa Bay, which is the upper (northern) section of the massive estuary. For the last two nights, we stayed on the Little Manatee River at Pirate's Point Lodge in Ruskin, FL. Pirate's Point is an intimate fishing resort with cottages located about a mile inland from Tampa Bay on one of Florida's best winter snook fisheries. The cottages are perfect for the traveling kayak fisherman and his family. I will get into more detail with Pirates Point and the area later.

Florida tackle boxes assembled over several trips

designed to target redfish, snook, seatrout, and sheepshead

Of course, I rented a kayak for the trip from the Tackle Shack in Pinellas Park. This is one of the great benefits of making a trip to Tampa. Many kayak rentals in Florida won't allow you to take a kayak offsite. Additionally, many places don't rent peddle powered kayaks. The Tackle Shack allows you to do both, which is perfect for me since I am most comfortable fishing with the Mirage Drive.

I fished three times on the brief trip, but my first two outings were short, and weather was a major factor for the entire vacation. Firstly, the wind was cranking hard at 20 knots for the first four days and nights. This limited the areas that I could effectively fish, and took away any hope of me getting out on the flats at Gandy, Weedon Island, or Cockroach Bay for the trip.

Most importantly, I arrived in the middle of a massive cold front, and the temperature highs for the first two days topped out at 52 degrees. Even worse, it was about 10 degrees colder at night. So, the cold wind kept me away from the snook lights after dark. Although I had a dry top, it was too cold to fish at night in shorts because of the heavy wind.

With limited options and time, the fishing was mediocre. I caught several different species of fish . . . . but no large specimens of any kind. I caught mostly sheepshead, but also got seatrout, red drum, mangrove snapper, and tons of ladyfish (one ladyfish casualty was chopped up into chunks for a big drum - I was getting desperate!). A couple of the sheepshead and a seatrout made for a nice BBQ for my wife the fourth night.

This is the school of porpoises that chased the mullet out of the cove after the first night discussed later. With the good water clarity, you can see the puffs of sand that they kick off the bottom. But, the presence of dolphins doesn't shut the fishing down like it does on Long Island. Although the mullet werechased off, the sheepshead fishing remained good. Too bad the dolphins didn't thin out the ladyfish.

Pelican Island / Courtney Campbell Causeway - February 17, 2013

Pelican Island / Rocky Point and adjoining bay.

Fiddler crabs were the bait of choice for

sheepshead.

For the first night, we stayed north of the Courtney Campbell Causeway on Pelican Island. Our accommodations were on the bay with a dock. The area from our hotel to beyond the Gandy Bridge is known as Old Tampa Bay, which is a smaller version of the lower bay.

With the predicted gusty conditions for my entire stay on Old Tampa Bay, I knew I had no shot at fishing the flats, so I hitched the kayak to the pier at the hotel after arriving and unloading. The little harbor around the hotel is sheltered from the wind every direction, almost like a small lake.

I didn't get to fish until late on the second day of the trip. I was pleased to see a substantial amount of little bait and a huge school of mullet hovering around the dock when I moored the kayak to the pier. The next morning, a school of porpoises chased much of the mullet off - I got to see it from my balcony on the second floor, which was an awesome site.

Typical structure around Pelican.

The water from the hotel to Courtney Campbell is about about a 1/4 mile wide, and about a mile long, ending in a series of residential canals. There is a channel leading out to the northwest that brings in most of the water, and a culvert across Courtney Campbell also provides some tidal flow.

I had stayed there many times over the years, and had caught sheepshead (my first) and spadefish, and seen big snook. I planned to fish for three hours, and work the piers for sheepshead for the first two hours, and hit the warm water at the back of the canals for snook at dusk. I met two kids at the hotel who had been given some sheepshead by another person staying there - I found this encouraging and planned to work the piers hard.

After launching, I broke out my tautog rod and sheppies tog jigs and hit the piers with some fiddler crabs. The availability of fiddlers is another benefit of staying in Tampa. I find that they out-produce shrimp at a high ratio for sheepshead. Very few areas in Florida sell fiddlers. I've encountered my biggest sheepshead in southwest florida during the winter, and an angler could make a killing there with fiddlers, but no place sells them. You can dig out of certain beaches, but it is hard to find the time to do that on vacation.

My strategy was simple - the harbor was littered with small piers and moorings from various restaurants, hotels, condos, and residences. You could fish every piling in a given pier in 5 - 10 minutes. If conditions are right in terms of water temps, sheepshead are similar to tautog, and and angler will become quickly aware of their presence because they bite almost immediately. As such, I did a one hundred second count before I would move to a different piling. The flip side with this strategy is that the fish could bite . . . . but they may be small. This traps you into fishing a spot longer than you should if there are little bait stealers / small sheepshead present. Although the water around the piers was mostly 4' - 5', I fished vertically against the pier since the water was stained. I've found that sheepshead are not shy to kayaks, even in shallower water.

As you can see, I caught this sheepshead on a sheppie -

the same jigs I use for tautog on Long Island. The

sheppie jig has a flat head that stands the crab off the

bottom, which makes for an easier hook set.

At the first pier, I hooked up with a keeper sheepshead in short order - it fought hard but I wedged it away from the pilings.

Long story short, I totaled 7 sheepshead. 5 of these were keepers with the two biggest being 14" and 15", which I brought home for supper - just moving from pier to pier towards the canals.

A small seatrout I caught in the cove - with the lack of

spots and yellow fins, it looks more like a small

weakfish. There are two separate species of seatrout

in Florida - spotted and speckled. I can't tell the difference.

Near dusk, I switched gears and decided to look for snook in the canals. While trolling across the harbor, I caught a seatrout on a rapala x-rap, which was a surprise, as I never caught one in that area before - no grass there at all. After this, I couldn't get through the ladyfish, which were thick in blitz mode everywhere - unhooking a ladyfish on a treble is even less fun than a cocktail bluefish. With little hope of getting through the ladys to the snook, I headed back to the pier as the sun set. I moored my yak to the pier in expectations of going out really late, but I never made it out because the night became brutally cold with high winds.

Sheepshead for dinner! I only kept 2 out of the 7 keeper sheepshead I caught during the trip. I caught 10 total sheepshead.

The cove was inundated with ladyfish, making it difficult to locate snook and other gamefish. Ladyfish are a smaller cousin of the tarpon,and are great jumpers when hooked. They are not edible, but make excellent bait for bigger fish if chunked or fished live. They are a big-time school fish and are generally considered a nuisance fish. Larger specimens can exceed 22".

Gandy - February 17, 2013

Gandy Bridge looking west to St. Petersburg.

On getaway day to Ruskin, I had hoped to fish the Gandy Bridge for sheepshead and also hit the adjacent flats, but was blown out with high winds. The prior year, I had noticed a canal adjacent to a park slightly inshore of gandy that would be sheltered from the wind - rubble, docks, pilings, rocks, and concrete everywhere. So, I decided to give that a short shot for sheepshead - very short - with a late start, I only had an hour to fish after a half hour drive.

Typical oyster-strewn structure around the canal near

Gandy Bridge. Many anglers bring out gardening shovels

to scrape off the barnacles for chum.

As kayak fishermen, we are often approached by people as we unload our gear, which is exactly what happened at Gandy. Funny story - I was approached by a really nice older southern gentleman. Once he heard I was from NY, he told me his niece was an attorney / actress that lived mostly in NYC. So, as the conversation progressed, it turned out his niece played Ferris Bueller's girlfriend in Ferris Buellers Day Off. He had some really great stories.

Unfortunately, that was the most interesting part of my experience at Gandy, where I fed fiddler crabs to little fish for a grand result of three sheepshead (two 12" keeper sheepshead) and a dink mangrove snapper. I headed in after an hour, not all that unhappy that I didn't have more time. I got some good pictures of the structure there, which is some of the best that I've seen on the west coast of florida with the exception of the big bridges. Some of it reminded me of Port Canaveral. But, judging by the scraped barnacles on many pilings, the spot is no secret.

Gandy sheepshead.

Little Manatee River

Cottages at Pirate's Pointe.

Boat dock at Pirate's Point on the Little Manatee River. . I tied my kayak to the dock for my entire stay. Easy access to solid inshore fishing day or night.

The middle channel of the Little Manatee River is a maze of little creeks running through the mangrove - very reminiscent of Ten Thousand Islands. Best practice is to always bring a compass or hand held GPS, especially if you are fishing near dark.

Broken Bridge, Little Manatee River.

After an hour drive south, we arrived at Pirates Pointe Resort in Ruskin in the late afternoon. We were extremely happy that we made the drive, and it is truly a kayak fisherman's dream vacation spot owned by a fisherman who caters to the fishing crowd. As strange as it may seem, it reminded my wife and I of some of the lodges that we visited in New England. Instead of a New England feel, this was an old Florida feel - the complex is canopied by palm trees in a seashell parking lot. Each cottage is unique - our cottage had a view of the river with a front yard, back yard, and rooftop deck. These are newly renovated cabins with all the comforts of home, including a kitchen and gas grill in the backyard. Palms and mangrove trees everywhere, plus an extremely nice pool with a waterfall.

Little Manatee fishing kit - two medium fast action rods (Mojo

and Triumph from St. Croix) spooled with 10 lb braid and 12 lb

fluorocarbon, a medium-heavy rod for fishing for sheepshead

spooled with 30 lb braid and a 30lb fluorocarbon leader,

and an 8 weight fly rod for fishing the snook lights.

No joke - this place is so relaxing that you won't want to fish and that is what happened to me the last day. If you are going on a trip where you would like to dedicate some time to kayak fishing, this is the perfect place for you - you can choose your times to fish by leaving your yak mored to the pier. More importantly, you are insulated from wind. The narrow mangrove creeks that bisect the Little Manatee are fishable from the kayak in almost any weather, and I took advantage of that the day I fished, which had gusty 20 knot winds.

After unpacking and getting groceries, I hitched the kayak to the pier in anticipation of fishing hard the last full day of the trip. I was on the water by 7 am the next morning, which coincided to the bottom of the ebb. I preceded to work the sunny spots along the shoreline, focusing on oyster bars around and in the mangroves, as I worked my way downstream to the falling tide.

In this area, the Manatee is broken into three major channels that flow out to Cockroach Bay about a mile to the west. The center channel is more like a series a creeks under the main channel that snake through a oyster bar / mangrove forest. I was looking to fish some structure on the southern channel, where there is a ruined bridge. The broken bridge was about a mile away from the launch.

The Little Manatee River was busy with fishing boats.

The Little Manatee River is an impressive ecosystem. It spans 40 miles from its source into Cockroach Bay (a bay inside lower Tampa Bay) With its shallow bottom a blend of mud and oyster shells, it stays nice and warm during the Tampa winters. This makes it extremely attractive to snook, redfish, and trout that move inside from Cockroach Bay to the warmer waters of the Little Manatee. With oyster bars strewn along the mangrove shoreline, there are ambush points throughout the estuary, and you have enough water to cover a month's worth of fishing trips. Snook, a tropical fish, will push deep into freshwater rivers during the winter to stay warm. I believe that the cold front that accompanied my trip pushed the snook far upstream from their usual location. It is my understanding that the snook push up higher than Route 75 during some cold fronts, which was about 7 miles east from the lodge.

Trolling in the mangroves.

I casted gold spoons and gulp shrimp along the shorelines of the northern channel and caught nothing. So, I made the turn up through the center channel, through some flats where I went over two nice redfish, and hit one of the small creeks, again working the shorelines with spoons and gulp shrimp . . . . by this time the tide was rising.

At the end of one of the creeks, the area opened up into a fairly wide bayou, and up against the mangroves, some predators were chasing little baitfish into the mangroves, and against the shore. I took a few minutes and casted at them, and got the gold spoon right into the strike zone . . . . but couldn't get the fish the take it.

A little further, I found a boat fishing at the mouth . . . . who had caught nothing - the next creek over, I found some fish working a creek mouth that ended in a dead end, but had some current flow- I wasn't sure what they were, but I think they were reds. I usually see snook crash, or trout pop, but this looked more like tailing. It appeared to be a little pod of 3 or 4 fish. I worked them for a few minutes, but couldn't get them to eat, so I went up the creek, which ended in a dead end, and moved my way back out.

I crossed the channel, and trolled a rapala and hooked into a fish. The fish turned out to be 20" ladyfish, which gave me a solid fight. But, I was hoping for something different. I kept this ladyfish to chunk as bait.

Looks like a good sheepshead spot. The current here is

strong and it looks like it would be a great snook area

in warmer weather.

Soon, I was nearing the southern shoreline and I found Broken Bridge, which is an old road bridge that was destroyed many years ago, probably by storm. The destruction occurred so long ago that the road isn't even there anymore. However, there was rubble everywhere, and I expected it to be a good sheepshead location at the very least.

The current rips strongly through broken bridge. Upon arrival, there was a boat was fishing with bobbers along the eddy behind the channel. I worked the mangroves opposite the shore and caught nothing. I saw fish popping out on bait around the eddies - looked like trout to me. Afterwards, the boat took off and I had broken bridge to myself . . . . so I wedged myself into a crevice in the bridge, kept peddling, and grabbed my sheepshead pole. I had bought some barnacles to chum with, so I started tossing the smelly stuff into the water, rigged my crab with a jig, and fished the bridge hard for sheepshead about 10 minutes - nothing! The water was shallow maxing out at about 6', and I didn't see any sheepshead along the bridge, so I started casting plastics and plugs in the main channel - no luck with that either.

Small seatrout from the Little Manatee.

By this time, the tide was fairly high and I had to go back to the cabin. But, the high tide brought the opportunity to troll the edges of the mangroves - I got right on top of them - rod almost touching the leaves, and I slowly trolled my way back to the lodge. My lure of choice was a 3" Powerbait Shad. Behind the middle island, I got a nice hit on the shad, I dragged the rod forward a couple of times to get an inconsistent action, and hooked into a fish, and subsequently landed a keeper trout. I started trolling again, and caught another smaller trout shortly thereafter.

The remainder of the troll back was uneventful, but since I had few minutes, I thought I would try trolling rattlin' raps through two of the residential canals upstream of the lodge. Residential canals are generally deeper than the surrounding waters, and snook sometimes stack up in the deep water in these canals as a wintertime refuge. . . . . not this time. No hits for me through either canal.

By now, it was noon, but I planned to go out again from 5 pm until dark later that afternoon.

Late Afternoon Fishing and a Lesson Learned

As planned, I got out again at 5 pm. At this time, the water was still high, which surprised me since it was so low at 7 am that morning. So, off I went. My plan was to target snook, reds, and trout. Since the water was still high, trolling the mangroves seemed the best way to cover the most water, so I rigged my rods with two baits - a 3"powerbait shad (albino) and a pearl 3" Rapala X-Rap. I thought that the shad would be more productive, so I trolled it closer to the mangroves.

While trolling slightly downstream of the narrowing of the channel, I got a solid hookup on the rapala, after a nice fight, I landed an under-slot redfish. I was happy about this, even though it wasn't quite a keeper. it was my only redfish of the trip. It surprised me because it was a little off the mangroves, and I always figure the reds bury themselves deepest in the brush.

Under-slot red drum.

I made the turn and trolled through a little creek near the middle of the channel and continued the entire way to the Broken Bridge. At the old bridge, I turned the corner and went upstream to find a little mangrove island along the shoreline, where I found a bunch of tailing redfish . . . . well, I became mesmerized and proceeded to throw my tackle box at them . . . . for nothing but humble pie. By the time I was done, the sun had set and it was getting dark fast.

I had memorized the path back to the lodge . . . . or so I thought. For those of you that haven't explored the Florida mangroves at night . . . . everything looks the same. There are no landmarks, and one view is identical to the next - a purple sky with black shrubs above the waterline. Yes, there are some lights from the residences, but if you get turned around without a GPS and compass, there could be a problem in a maze of creeks. I had neither. My handheld waterproof GPS got waterlogged somehow, and I forget to bring a compass.

On the way back, I caught a fish that I thought may have turned me around, but I believed that I had kept my bearings and preceded along the path that I thought was the route home. . . . well, things looked kinda different . . . . but I could explain that to the night. . . .I was sure I was on the way home . . . . but as I made my final turn . . . . everything looked different and I felt a sense of vertigo . . . and lost my bearings . . . . and started to panic. I didn't bring my radio with me on the trip. Oh, and did I mention that I forget my dry bag too, so I had no cell phone? After going back and forth for a few minutes, I decided to trust my instincts that north was where I thought it was, and went back up on the path. After a few minutes, I saw a big American flag, and remembered that the dock where I was staying had a flag - but it was so far off from where I thought it would be that I couldn't believe it. I checked it out, and it was the dock, so I was very happy to get back on dry land again - lol - I was almost at the point of knocking on someone's door, which was bad preparation from me.

Lesson learned - always have at least a compass and a GPS is essential in strange waters.

And that was that. I had planned to fish the last morning, but decided to sleep in and enjoy the lodge instead. It was the only calm day of the trip, but I was enjoying the lodge so much, and discouraged by the fishing of the previous day, that I thought having a nice morning with my wife in the sun would be best with the prospect of a long haul home later that day.

Although it is good for a short or long trip, Pirate's Point is perfect for a kayak angler from our area that wants to utilize a holiday weekend - it is easy - hop off the plane, rent a kayak from St. Petersberg, and head there for three or four nights - after you buy your supplies, you won''t have to leave the compound again and can choose your spots to fish in almost any weather.

Special thanks to the guys at HCKA, who have helped me learn so much about fishing Florida. Also, thanks to John at Pirate's Point who gave me a great layout for fishing the Manatee. As always, the guys at the Tackle Shack provide great kayak rental services as well.