Tampa, FL - Shore, pier fishing info needed

[Brad1]

Looking for places in Tampa to do a little shore or pier fishing. Also looking for recommendations on a local bait / tackle shop. Any info is greatly appreciated. Thanks. Brad

[Prop Blast]

Wow, you hit the lottery. There are a ton of places here to fish from piers and shore. We just might have one or two tackle shops as well. Where are you going to be staying? Tampa itself, St Petersburg or Clearwater?

1. Places to fish:

- Sunshine Skyway Piers. These are the two longest fishing piers in the U.S. and are located at the mouth of Tampa Bay. One on the north side (Tampa) and one on the south side (Bradenton). What can you catch? Snapper, Grouper, Mackerel, Tarpon, Sharks, ..... Cost is $4 I think and the best deal around.

- Ft. DeSoto Park. Located at the mouth of Tampa Bay (aka Mullet Key).

- Gandy Bridge. The southernmost of the three bridges/causeway's connecting Tampa with St. Pete/Clearwater.

- Honeymoon Island State Park. Located just north of Clearwater. Great summer snook fishing from the beach. You won't believe how close the snook are to shore, trust me!

2. Tackle Shops:
- Tighlines Tackle in Tampa
- Gandy Bait and Tackle in Tampa (live and frozen bait)
- Dogfish Tackle in St Pete
- Betts Tackle in St. Pete

That should get you started...

As far as tackle goes, it all depends on what you want to target. The most useful setup you can have is a good quality spinning rig with a reel similar to a 3000 sized Shimano spooled with 15 or 20lb braid and a 7' graphite rod rated for 8-15lbs or say 6-12lbs. My "go to" set up is an older Shimano Stradic 4000FE spooled with 20lb braid on a 7'9" GLoomis rod (GWR 930S). There are other rigs that are equally good though.

PB

[Brad1]

Prop Blast,

Thanks for the info. We're staying at the Marriot Waterside. Beautiful place. The Wife is in a conference at the convention center. I brought our Cabela's telescopic light action graphite rods with light action spinning reels. Myself and two Sons (9 and 12) are fishing. Yesterday, I picked up some Berkley 3" Gulp shrimp, 25 ln Sequar Flourocarbon leader, and some gig heads. We fished right by the conference center for a few hours today. Sons caught three catfish and a jack crevel (I didn't fish, just assisted them). Tomorrow the Wife's in the conference for the whole day so I think we're going to drive over to Clearwater. I'll probably check out some of the places you mentioned tomorrow and the next couple of days. The Wife is done with conferences after Wednesday, so I promised her we'll do Tarpon Springs on Thursday or Friday.

I've been for Ft. Desoto before. Always liked that place. A very closed friend of mine moved to this area when we graduated college (lived in Valrico) so I used to travel down this way all the time (once a year). But he and his family moved to Kentucky about 8 yrs ago.

I've always loved this area.

[Brad1]

Prop Blast,

Thanks for the info. We're staying at the Marriot Waterside. Beautiful place. The Wife is in a conference at the convention center. I brought our Cabela's telescopic light action graphite rods with light action spinning reels. Myself and two Sons (9 and 12) are fishing. Yesterday, I picked up some Berkley 3" Gulp shrimp, 25 ln Sequar Flourocarbon leader, and some gig heads. We fished right by the conference center for a few hours today. Sons caught three catfish and a jack crevel (I didn't fish, just assisted them). Tomorrow the Wife's in the conference for the whole day so I think we're going to drive over to Clearwater. I'll probably check out some of the places you mentioned tomorrow and the next couple of days. The Wife is done with conferences after Wednesday, so I promised her we'll do Tarpon Springs on Thursday or Friday.

I've been for Ft. Desoto before. Always liked that place. A very closed friend of mine moved to this area when we graduated college (lived in Valrico) so I used to travel down this way all the time (once a year). But he and his family moved to Kentucky about 8 yrs ago.

I've always loved this area.