9/24 nsp

[thundergills]

Hello all,

I had a great day out today. I really missed fishing last month.

I got my spot for early 8 am, but the water looked black? There was a lot of tarpon cresting near me, but nothing else. Bought some shrimp, still nothing.

Move a couple of times, and left my unhooking tool for someone to find as I passed him... Not so smart on my part.

Finally found a school of mangos, all under sized, mixed with black bass, key West grunts... And small gags!!! I caught my first 2 grouper since moving down here. I saw an amazing display of birds and dolphin working a bait ball out of casting range. Baitfish were deep, tides were ripping out with the wind.

But 2 small gags, a dozen snapper, bass and some grunts... Just what the doctor ordered

Thundergills

[jlars]

I fished the afternoon into evening. Plenty of greenbacks on sabikis. Small med and large ones. Caught two jacks, two bonnethead sharks and seven gags up to 18" released. No snappers in my snapper spot. Never caught a pinfish or a pinfish bite. Thought that was odd. Plenty of rays swimming around in big groups. Saw 6 nice spanish macks caught by a woman working a larger sabiki. She was getting them on the bottom hook.  Bite died after dark. lite outgoing the whole time.

[Mackerelman]

The most probable reason for the water being discolored is from Hurricane Irma.
Irma took most of the water out of Tampa Bay as it approached and then brought the water back in after it had passed.
I have seen this several times before throughout the years after a Hurricane had passed by.
It usually take a couple weeks or so for everything to settle back down.

You might want to try the SS Pier. I have been hearing from others from other sites that the SS Pier has not been as bad as the NS Pier.
This may be because of all of the rivers & streams from the East Side of Tampa Bay that feeds into Tampa Bay from Manatee & Hillsborough Counties.

Good Luck & Tight Lines & Fill Those Buckets & Coolers with all of those Tasty Seafood Treats !