Tampa bay/Fort De Soto on the fly

[Lukas D]

Headed down to the Tampa bay area for a week on the 16th of November. First time doing any fly fishing around that area, and tips/suggestions. I don't have a boat so wading will be my main form of getting "on the water."

[October Caddis]

Not terribly useful, but I was down there Labor Day and the surf was blowing up at dawn every morning. 99% ladyfish hitting anything that moved, 1% snook on shrimp patterns. Ladyfish would be fun on a 5wt. Finger length bait all over the place.

Wish I had better intel but this was a family trip, not a fishing trip so I had little time on the water. The mangroves on the inter coastal looked juicy but didn’t get a shot at em.

[Lukas D]

Anything helps. Thanks!

[Dalton Terrell]

Lukas,

I have a little experience fishing that area from a boat, but have a lot of experience fishing Snook, with occasional Reds and Tarpon in Southwest Florida.

From my experience, the Snook aren't on the beach that late in the year, and the ones you can catch on the fly will be in the mangroves and around docks/structure to some extent. Looking at Google, there are a number of kayak and canoe rental places that situate you in fairly prime looking water, and I'd recommend trying this over wading. One example is Sweetwater Kayak; I have no experience or affiliation with this company, I can just see it's in an area that looks good and is fairly protected if you run into wind. At higher tide (i.e. water under the mangroves), I would drift a mangrove shore line and put flies right against the trees. At lower tide, I'd drift a flat and look for fish as well as casting into potholes (in a grass flat, this is a spot without grass). With all of this fishing, I like to fish a neutral density fly like an EP Baitfish or Schminnow without weight, but also carry some clousers, shrimp, or crab flies lead eyes if you need to get down.

Good luck!

Dalton

[Lane Thurgood]

I second Dalton.  I generally fish a little further south and wade the mangroves.  I generally throw an 8-weight with floating line.  Gurglers, EP flies, clousers are my mainstays.  On a sad note, but one you should be aware or, stay tuned to the red tide updates because that entire area is in serious jeopardy right now with the worst red tide bloom in more than a decade. 

[Lukas D]

Thank you both for the help. Yeah I'm trying to keep an eye out for the red tide and I may end up emailing some fly shops to see what the extent of the damage is. I hope it hasn't been affected too badly

[ALarge]

Check out Honeymoon Island and Caladeesi Island (if you can get to it). A bit of a hike to the end of Hog Island (part of honeymoon island) will be worth it for access to some great grass flats and mangroves dotting the shoreline. Redfish, Speckled Trout, Snook, Ladyfish and the occasional pompano will be your targets. 

[ALarge]

And yes, a kayak or canoe rental will make the flats around the East side of honeymoon island much more accessible. 

[Nedak]

I used 

Jim Kammel - former member of TPFR - guides in the Tampa Bay Area. I went out with him twice last week when I was down there, and he was great. He is at Catcher And The Fly - http://thecatcherandthefly.com

He gives a discount for TPFR or at least did.  great guy.  was kinda new to area and probably much more fishy now that he has been there a while.

[tguf...@verizon.net]

I am presently vacationing in St Beach Beach which is just south of Tampa. I have been fishing the beach in front of our hotel and seeing good size Snook right in the surf. So far I’ve had two on. The first broke me off at the strike so I increased my 15lb leader to 20 lb and promptly landed my first ever fly caught Snook.

Tonight I am going night fly fishing the dock lights with Capt Brant who was recommended by local Tampa Bay Fly Shop. Apparently the target fish will be Snook, redfish and baby tarpon. Should be fun.

[Bob Bishop]

Cool.apparently no red tide problem?

 Sent from my iPad. 

On Oct 25, 2018, at 4:29 PM, tguf...@verizon.net wrote:

I am presently vacationing in St Beach Beach which is just south of Tampa.  I have been fishing the beach in front of our hotel  and seeing good size Snook right in the surf.  So far I’ve had two on.  The first broke me off at the strike so I increased my 15lb leader to 20 lb and promptly landed my first ever fly caught Snook.

Tonight I am going night fly fishing the dock lights with Capt Brant who was recommended by local Tampa Bay Fly Shop.  Apparently the target fish will be Snook, redfish and baby tarpon.  Should be fun.

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[Lukas D]

Wow that sounds fun. I probably won't be getting together with a guide but it's comforting to hear there are still big fish around after all this red tide talk. I also talked to a local fly shop and it's still not certain if the snook will still be on the beaches by the time I go down, it all depends on the weather. Good luck on your outing!

[Dalton Terrell]

Tom, very cool that you've found some fish still swimming on the beach! For snook and small tarpon, I generally a leader down to 15 lb, and then tie 2-2.5 ft of 30 lb fluoro shock tippet on the end because their mouths can really chafe your leader to nothing. Trent found out the hard way a few years ago when we watched a 30"+ swim off with his fly into the mangroves within seconds of taking the fly.

I texted a friend that lives in St. Pete and he said the red tide has been mostly on the beach, but hasn't impacted the back country fishing in Tampa Bay so far.

Good luck fishing to all of you.

Dalton

[tguf...@verizon.net]

So last night as I previously mentioned I went night fishing The dock lights in around St Pete Beach and St Petersburg. For reason I can guess many of the private boat docks of the very upscale waterfront homes have underwater colored lights. Most of these lights had literally dozens of very sizeable fish in the lights and shadow line. Most of these fish were Snook but as I found out there were redfish and mangrove snappers. We did see some good size specked trout but did not hook any. We also expected to find baby tarpon but did not see any.

The game was simply to throw a white fly into the light and hang on. The fish were on the fly immediately. Most of the fish caught were Snook but also hooked a good size redfish that took a while to land. Also caught a line mangrove snapper that fought very hard. Hooked some large fish that broke me off including the berry last fish I could not control and never saw but had on for some blistering runs before breaking my 30lb tippet.

It was great fun and if your in the Tampa area give Capt Dave Dant, (727) 744-9039, a call.