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Kingfish
Posts: 1201
 
Location: Tampa Bay | Cooler Water Means Longer Runs West
By RANDY ROCHELLE
Posted December 22, 2008 by The Tampa Tribune
Falling water temperatures have slowed the shallow-water gag-grouper bite. During the last couple of weeks the bite in 30 to 50 feet has been hot, however, water temperatures in the mid-60s have cooled that bite.
Doug Westlake and crew said they were on a good bite in 100 to 110 feet on and near the pipe Friday. The biggest problem we had was getting bait down through the hordes of hungry red snapper. If you did get bait down, you were rewarded with a nice gag.
We ran into the same thing Saturday. After hitting a couple of spots in the 50- to 65-foot range finding on shorts, we ran on out to 100 feet and found the gags chewing. The bite didn’t last long as once the red snapper showed up that is all we could catch.
Farther south the mangrove snapper bait has been decent. Fishing rock piles and ledges in 60 to 80 feet 8 miles southwest of the Whistler Buoy produced some decent mangos to 5 pounds and a good mix of red and gag grouper.
As water temperatures continue to drop there are two things to keep in mind. One is slow down to give each spot a little longer than you normally do. Second is as waters cool you will have to push out a bit deeper to find active fish.
Captain Randy Rochelle runs the “Gotta Go” out of St. Petersburg and can be reached at (727) 365-3218 or www.islandercharters.net.
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Cool Runnings - Randy Rochelle | TBO
