St. Petersburg/Tampa Bay Area 07-16-12

Grouper season is open, so take advantage and go fish for some of these tasty fish. From just outside the mouth of Tampa Bay around Egmont Island past the Skyway Bridge all the way up to Picnic Island there are gag grouper to be caught.

Around bridge pilings, artificial reefs, rock piles, ledges and the shipping channel to name a few areas, there are plenty of spots to catch grouper in the bay. When looking for an area look for a good ledge or rock pile on your bottom finder that is holding a lot of bait. Many times this will be the area also holding grouper.

Live baits like pinfish, whitebait, threadfin, grunts and squirrel fish will all get hammered by a hungry grouper. If the bite should slow try filleting one side of a large bait and dropping that down, many times the exposed meat gives off good scent and attracts a few more grouper to the boat.

Jarred with a nice grouper caught at the mouth of Tampa Bay.

Capt. George Hastick fishes the St. Petersburg/Tampa Bay area. If you would like more information or would like to book a charter please contact him at: