Winter Tampa Bay Inshore Tactics

Winter Tampa Bay Inshore Tactics — with the warmer air temperature still in the upper 70s to low 80s during the day in between the cold fronts, you might want to look around the bay area reefs and bay area flats. When the water starts warming up in the middle of the day the Snook start biting — and don't forget the dock lights and bay area bridges at night for great fishing with this warm weather.

With the water temperature still hanging around the 68-degree mark during mid-day, I would first fish the reefs in the morning for Sheepshead and Mango Snapper. The bite has been great in the morning when the sun gets up a little. As the water warms up, nice Trout and Redfish are moving around the flats. As the sun gets higher in the sky, I start heading to bay area creeks and flats looking for Snook near the Skyway or up the bay by the Gandy Bridge area.

In the late afternoon and evenings, I like to fish the mangrove shorelines with jerk baits and suspending baits. As it gets darker, I start looking around the dock lights for Trout, Snook, and even a resident baby Tarpon in some areas. No matter when you can get out there, there is always great fishing in the Tampa Bay area — and the best part is you can use your flats rods to do it all.