# Mayhem Trip to Tampa 9/25-27



## [email protected] (Mar 20, 2008)

We loaded up the kayaks for a trip to Tampa Thursday after work. Day 1 we launched at Weedon Island at about 7am. Weedon Island is a place that is full of mangroves and grass flats. First thing we find the Jacks...we both messed with those for awile and got some screaming drag going. We looked all over for our target species (Snook) and we saw a bunch of them. They would not eat anything....I did spot a few reds and got this 25 incher to eat. We caught a few trout and headed back to the house due to scorching heat...I think we left @ the time we should have been fishing because the tide was starting to head out. Launched again in the same area that evening about 4pm. We worked the whole area over and I finally got a 21" Snook...my first ever! Also got my first ever inshore slam and it was not even in my home area. We messed around and continued to catch trout while trying to find some more snook. Headed home about 6:45pm and then made our way out to Dubai Long Pier. Tim caught this 36" snook after about 4 hours of standing on the pier waiting for them to show up and get hungry...he ate a ladyfish. It was his first ever and a very impressive catch...only one caught on the pier all night! Woke up early and went out to cockroach bay. We paddled the whole area and got a few trout and I got one small snook for our efforts. We took a break and dumped off the kayaks and then went out to Ft De Soto...we saw some snook on the bay pier but they were no eaters. Finally made our way back to Dubai pier and fished until 1am. We could not catch a bait to save our lives. I did finally get a decent LY and dropped it down where we had seen a snook minutes before...he came out and hammered the LY...unfortunately I was using my little rod with 15lb braid and 20lb flouro...I survived the intial crush and almost had him under control when he went crazy again and jumped into the pylon and broke me off...We left on a sad note but it was great trip none the less! Cant wait to go back next summer a little ealier andmurder the Snook now that we know whats going on. We did go to an unknown area and have some success so that was awesome!


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## reelfinatical (Sep 30, 2007)

Looks & sounds like y'all hadfun over there


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## Pourman1 (Oct 4, 2007)

NICE !! :clap ... going down to Sebastian Inlet in October myself , never caught a Snook ... yet :letsdrink


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## Chris V (Oct 18, 2007)

Looks like ya'll had fun down there. I'll be fishing someof the same areas this coming weekend.


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## teamreelloco2 (Mar 10, 2009)

Good job. It's always nice to catch fish somewhere else. Mike and I went to Sebastian a few years ago. I only got one snook, but it was worth the trip to experience that. I wish we had them up here.


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## gottafish (Oct 6, 2007)

Way to go, Tim!!! I once caught a 44-inch Snookoff of the Lake Worth Pier near West Palm Beach, but they run bigger on that coast,so that is one heck of a linesider for the Tampa Bay area!!!! 

Snook are like grouper...they naturally head for stucture when hooked, so the big ones are a real challenge to land. :bowdown

Sounds like you guys had a great trip!


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## Buckethead (Sep 2, 2008)

> *Pourman1 (9/28/2009)*NICE !! :clap ... going down to Sebastian Inlet in October myself , never caught a Snook ... yet :letsdrink




Get ready then, they fight like hell. A 20 lb. or more Snook will spool the s*** out of you. They are awesome to catch. They don't go on as many runs as redfish, but they are faster, it's like a combo of a redfish and a mackerel. Great table fare as well, if you skin them. 



As far as the report goes, Cockroach Bay is almost live bait only since it's entirely mangroves. Snook are everywhere in there, and some decent reds. I had a tough time in there with artificials, only pulling a few of each species. It's tough to shoot a jerkshad way back in those mangroves, takes some practice. If you leave from the ramp in Cockroach Bay and head South into that maze of small cuts before you get into the bigger "bay" part of it, there are lots of very nice fish in there. You'll see schools of huge lunker sized mullet in large numbers. Find them and you'll probably end up surrounded by a few schools of redfish. I was prefishing there for Ruskin 2 months ago and ended up surrounded by about 5 big schools of reds on my first morning there, I wish I had someone else with me so we could've slammed them better. Needless to say, that didn't happen in there the rest of the week. You mentioned Fort De Soto, Mullet Bayou holds very nice tournament reds almost all year long. I'll leave it up to you to figure out how to get them to bite though, that is a pain in the @$$.


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## Chris V (Oct 18, 2007)

Thanks for the tips buckethead. I will be fishing both tampa and sarasota this weekend and plan on spending some time in cockroach bay.


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## Buckethead (Sep 2, 2008)

I'm actually from Sarasota. If you'd like any advice on fishing that area as well, send me a PM.


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## NavySnooker (Sep 10, 2008)

wish i'da known you dudes were down, i coulda taken you out on the boat... we tore up weedon island all week until the "cool front" came in on sunday>>> glad to see you boys did well.... i hit a slam on every day we went out.. both north and south florida slams.. picked up some nice flounder... next time you hit tampa bay, shoot me a PM.. i may be in town... i'll be in pcola on the 7th, we should go tear 'em up


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