Look for these early season tarpon around the Sunshine Skyway, Egmont Key, Davis Island, Apollo Beach and Rocky Point and along the Gulf beaches.

Live greenbacks, pinfish and silver dollar crabs are the most popular baits. Soaking fresh dead baits like shad, mullet and big pinfish on the bottom is also very effective.

The Gandy, Frankland and Davis Causeway bridges are good spots for night time fishing. Tarpon will be cruising the dark part of the shadow line looking to ambush baits.

Pitching or floating a free-lined pinfish, jumbo shrimp or greenback in front of the cruising tarpon will usually result in a strike when they are in a feeding mood.

When landing a tarpon do not pull the head or body out of the water. Photos should be taken with the tarpon lying in the water alongside the boat and the angler looking up at the camera. After the photo, revive the tarpon and gently release it.

Land-based fishermen also have a chance at tarpon. Many are caught from the Redington Pier, Pier 60 and the Skyway fishing piers.

At the Skyway free-lining or floating live bait around the bridge structure is where most of the strikes occur. On the Gulf fishing piers, some strikes will happen around the pilings but most will happen 50 to 100 feet away from the structure.

Flats fishing is very good with trout and reds leading the way. Snook fishing is getting better but the numbers are not up enough to justify opening the season.

Kingfish are still around the last three sets of channel markers in the Egmont ship channel.

Red grouper and mangrove snapper are tearing it up in the 100-foot depth range.

Variety describes the fishing right now. Offshore the red grouper continue to bite well in depths of 80 feet and out. Look for bait stacks over flat rock bottom for the best action.

Capt. Kevin Walton found loads of 2- to 6-pound chicken dolphin (mahi mahi) in 60 feet west of St. Petersburg. Walton said every time he stopped to bottom fish the dolphin showed up to join the fun. Blackfin tuna are still around wrecks and springs.

Capt. Billy Miller found a herd of newly arrived tarpon and had a couple of mega bite tarpon days. Egmont Key and the Sunshine Skyway are the hot spots.

Capt. Ray Markham reports snook fishing inside Terra Ceia and Miguel bays is very good now. Redfish can be found be found on the outside flats as well as speckled trout. Soft plastic jigs are all you need, says Markham

The big blue crab run is on at the Skyway fishing piers. You can fill your bucket on the hard outgoing tides this week. A crab net with an extension handle helps your reach the water from the pier.

Speckled trout fishing in the Ft.Desotoarea is very good. Artificials or live baits have been working well this week over the grass flats near Cow and Calf and Jackass Key.

Kingfish and Spanish mackerel have returned to the usual spots. Some are in the ship channel, nearshore reefs and along St. Pete Beach.

Kingfish hit hard and fast, but their delicate mouths can cause problems if your drag is set too loose. On the strike, too much line tension will pull the hook from a king’s mouth, but too little pressure allows the fish to run a lot of line off your reel. A balanced approach is best, so start with a light drag and adjust as needed while fighting the fish. Adjusting the reel’s drag system during a fight is risky, but you can use your fingertips to add pressure on the spool to slow it down and decrease the rate at which line departs. Just be careful to apply smooth, gentle pressure, and when the fish runs, let go so you don’t risk pulled hooks.

SABIKI SETUP

A string of gold hooks known as a “sabiki” rig makes a highly-effective method for catching live bait in any depth, but this tool can instantly become a tangled mess if you don’t rig right from the start. Tear off the top of the package to expose the two swivels attached to either end of the rig. Tie your main line to the barrel swivel and clip the snap swivel to your sinker. Once you have both ends tied, simply pull the sinker end and the sabiki hooks slide neatly out of the package. Don’t try to manually unwrap a sabiki, as this usually results in a wad of line with sharp hooks.

WEIGHT OPTIONS

When clipping weight to sabikis, sinkers molded with swivels or attachment wires work best. However, a homemade alternative provides versatility and improves sabiki management. Run a piece of 30-inch leader through a couple of ounce egg sinkers and tie off the ends to for a loop through the weights. This allows you to easily clip your weight to a sabiki and quickly interchange or replace weights as needed. Also, the loop slips right over your reel handle between uses for convenient storage that’s much easier than wrapping the end of a sabiki around the handle. Keeping a handful of weight loops handle allows you to quickly rig up and adjust your weight size for different depths.

DELICATE REMOVAL

Sabikis are effective at snaring baitfish with minimal stress, but when you tightly grip the bait to remove a hook, you do a lot of damage to the little fish’s endurance. This affects the way the bait works in your spread, so minimize the amount of contact by using a small dehooker. Grab the bend of the sabiki hook with the bend of the dehooker, invert the handle so the tool pulls upward and give the hook a couple of shakes until the bait falls free. With practice, you’ll be able to quickly flip baits off your rig and into the live well with minimal stress.

St Joseph Sound has been the hot spot for Capt. Brian Caudill. Snook are showing up at the creek mouths, and the islands near the creeks as they prepare to move to the beaches. A few are already on the beach.

Behind Honeymoon Island, Caudill has been catching reds by fishing cut bait in the mullet schools. He’s also catching trout over the deeper flats by the ICW.

Fly fishermen are having fun fishing the Sarasota Bay dock lights with Capt. Rick Grassett. Catch-and-release snook and nice speckled trout having been eating the Grassett Snook Minnow fly for their evening meal.

During the day, Grassett and friends are also catching trout and redfish at Long Bar and Stephens Point.

Speckled trout fishing has been good for me in Boca Ciega Bay and the Ft.Desotoarea. Fishing solo the other day on a scouting mission I caught nice trout on motor oil colored MirrOlure ‘Lil Johns with a 1/8-ounce head, on DOA Deadly combinations and Tsunami topwater walking baits.

I was having such fun that I reached deep in my tackle box for some old school lures like the yellow Flowering Floreo jig and the topwater John Dillinger and caught trout until I was tired on all of those lures.

Kingfish has changed since the last blow. The fish that were in the Egmont Ship Channel, offBlindPassand the Betty Rose were few and far between this week. Where they have gone is the question. I don’t think the kingfish season is over but it may well be tapering off as the kings move north.

Brad Johnson and friends fished markers 9 and 10 in the Egmont ship channel and caught a 41-pound kingfish while slow trolling a 4-inch threadfin herring.

Redfish were eating heavily for Capt. Chris Wiggins and the “Fishing with Bill Miller” film crew. Fishing theFt.Desoto area with fresh cut threadfins, Wiggins, LPGA star Brittany Lincicome and I caught redfish steadily all afternoon. A few big trout were in the mix including a 6-pounder that I caught with a live whitebait under a cork.

Big redfish schools have been spotted at Tarpon Key, outside of Weedon Island and in the 4^th Street area.

Capt. Billy Miller has been fishing inside due to the winds and has been finding great trout action over the grass flats. Easy limits can be had using live whitebait. Miller recommends chumming lightly with live baitfish to bring in mackerel, bluefish and flounder into play.

Local resident tarpon have been spotted and hooked for a couple of weeks now at bay area bridges. A few schools of migrating fish have shown up and that has increased the tarpon action.

Chris Petry was catching them in the Egmont Ship Channel around markers 9 and 10. Maximo Marina reports that Joey Burgess and his dad Bob caught blackfins up to 27 pounds at The Whistler buoy. Cigar minnows on a downrigger got the most fish.

Capt. Justin Moore has had good catches of blackfins in 40 feet off Anna Maria. Also included inMoore’s catches this week was a sailfish.

The St. Pete Beach reef was the hot spot for Capt. Billy Miller, who was limiting out on kingfish and Spanish mackerel – and catching blackfins there. Slow trolling a big threadfin, Miller and party also had a sailfish on for five jumps.

The cobia migration looks like it is here. Capt. Kevin Walton has been catching double digit numbers of cobia every day with fish up to 35 pounds over the near shore Gulf wrecks.

Capt. Mac Gregory took me and the “Fishing with Bill Miller” film crew on a great inshore grand slam trip. Fishing Anna Maria Sound with Gregory and me, Tom Su landed four grand slams of redfish, snook and trout during a half-day fishing trip.

Snook appear to be showing up in fair numbers, although nowhere near the numbers of years past. We found a group of cooperative linesiders lying over some grass along an island edge. A few live chummers got them going and the action was on.

Gag grouper is still closed but red grouper, scamp and others are open. Check www.MyFWC.com for current regulations.

Sharks have moved into the area and are following the bait and mackerel. Catching big sharks has been easy this week for Capt. Billy Miller. After Miller and his party have caught their limit of kings, a fresh mackerel or bonita with a few slices in it is drifted behind the boat on heavy tackle. It isn’t long before a shark finds the bait and the battle is on. Big blacktip and spinner sharks in the 6-foot range are common with a few bulls and lemons in the mix.

The Dunedin Reef was a hot spot for Capt. Rodney Ristau and friends. Anchoring near the reef and chumming with live bait produced 47 kingfish and numerous Spanish mackerel on a half day trip.

Billy Caldwell reports the kings were also biting off Boca Grande. The Power Pole Reef and Helen’s Reef were hot spots for Caldwell. Live bait did the best but a few were caught while trolling big spoons.

Tarpon action has been good this week for Capt. Steve Bonell. Using both live and artificial baits, Bonell and his charters are jumping two to three tarpon a morning in the Clearwater area.

Terra Ceia Bay and Sarasota Bay are good spots for trout and reds. The early morning topwater bite for trout has been good over the deep grass areas. As the tide rises later in the day, fish gold spoons around the island edges for redfish.

Kingfish hit hard and fast, but their delicate mouths can cause problems if your drag is set too loose. On the strike, too much line tension will pull the hook from a king’s mouth, but too little pressure allows the fish to run a lot of line off your reel. A balanced approach is best, so start with a light drag and adjust as needed while fighting the fish. Adjusting the reel’s drag system during a fight is risky, but you can use your fingertips to add pressure on the spool to slow it down and decrease the rate at which line departs. Just be careful to apply smooth, gentle pressure, and when the fish runs, let go so you don’t risk pulled hooks.

SABIKI SETUP

A string of gold hooks known as a “sabiki” rig makes a highly-effective method for catching live bait in any depth, but this tool can instantly become a tangled mess if you don’t rig right from the start. Tear off the top of the package to expose the two swivels attached to either end of the rig. Tie your main line to the barrel swivel and clip the snap swivel to your sinker. Once you have both ends tied, simply pull the sinker end and the sabiki hooks slide neatly out of the package. Don’t try to manually unwrap a sabiki, as this usually results in a wad of line with sharp hooks.

WEIGHT OPTIONS

When clipping weight to sabikis, sinkers molded with swivels or attachment wires work best. However, a homemade alternative provides versatility and improves sabiki management. Run a piece of 30-inch leader through a couple of ounce egg sinkers and tie off the ends to for a loop through the weights. This allows you to easily clip your weight to a sabiki and quickly interchange or replace weights as needed. Also, the loop slips right over your reel handle between uses for convenient storage that’s much easier than wrapping the end of a sabiki around the handle. Keeping a handful of weight loops handle allows you to quickly rig up and adjust your weight size for different depths.

DELICATE REMOVAL

Sabikis are effective at snaring baitfish with minimal stress, but when you tightly grip the bait to remove a hook, you do a lot of damage to the little fish’s endurance. This affects the way the bait works in your spread, so minimize the amount of contact by using a small dehooker. Grab the bend of the sabiki hook with the bend of the dehooker, invert the handle so the tool pulls upward and give the hook a couple of shakes until the bait falls free. With practice, you’ll be able to quickly flip baits off your rig and into the live well with minimal stress.

Kingfish hit hard and fast, but their delicate mouths can cause problems if your drag is set too loose. On the strike, too much line tension will pull the hook from a king’s mouth, but too little pressure allows the fish to run a lot of line off your reel. A balanced approach is best, so start with a light drag and adjust as needed while fighting the fish. Adjusting the reel’s drag system during a fight is risky, but you can use your fingertips to add pressure on the spool to slow it down and decrease the rate at which line departs. Just be careful to apply smooth, gentle pressure, and when the fish runs, let go so you don’t risk pulled hooks.

SABIKI SETUP

A string of gold hooks known as a “sabiki” rig makes a highly-effective method for catching live bait in any depth, but this tool can instantly become a tangled mess if you don’t rig right from the start. Tear off the top of the package to expose the two swivels attached to either end of the rig. Tie your main line to the barrel swivel and clip the snap swivel to your sinker. Once you have both ends tied, simply pull the sinker end and the sabiki hooks slide neatly out of the package. Don’t try to manually unwrap a sabiki, as this usually results in a wad of line with sharp hooks.

WEIGHT OPTIONS

When clipping weight to sabikis, sinkers molded with swivels or attachment wires work best. However, a homemade alternative provides versatility and improves sabiki management. Run a piece of 30-inch leader through a couple of ounce egg sinkers and tie off the ends to for a loop through the weights. This allows you to easily clip your weight to a sabiki and quickly interchange or replace weights as needed. Also, the loop slips right over your reel handle between uses for convenient storage that’s much easier than wrapping the end of a sabiki around the handle. Keeping a handful of weight loops handle allows you to quickly rig up and adjust your weight size for different depths.

DELICATE REMOVAL

Sabikis are effective at snaring baitfish with minimal stress, but when you tightly grip the bait to remove a hook, you do a lot of damage to the little fish’s endurance. This affects the way the bait works in your spread, so minimize the amount of contact by using a small dehooker. Grab the bend of the sabiki hook with the bend of the dehooker, invert the handle so the tool pulls upward and give the hook a couple of shakes until the bait falls free. With practice, you’ll be able to quickly flip baits off your rig and into the live well with minimal stress.

Frank Cooper fished with Capt. Billy Miller and caught a 43-pound kingfish off St. Petersburg Beach. Cooper’s big king ran off 150 yards of line and went through and around a group of anchored boats. With great courtesy, the other anglers reeled up their lines and helped Miller maneuver his boat through the crowd and into the clear. The big smoker king ate a 3-inch threadfin herring.

Capt. Eric Coppin and his family trolled kingfish spoons in 50 feet of water off Clearwater Beach, but they could not keep the legal sized gag grouper off their lines. All grouper were released, as the season is closed through March 31 in the Gulf of Mexico.

Pompano fishing at the Skyway fishing piers heated up this week. Anglers vertically jigging pink pompano jigs were scoring with keeper pompano and Spanish mackerel.

Capt. Van Hubbard says fishing in Charlotte Harbor is good right now. Hubbard has been catching redfish, big trout, and a few snook inside and Spanish mackerel, cobia and a few kings outside.

Pompano was the catch of the day for Gerry Stead and Phil Phillips over the deep flats of Boca Grande. Live shrimp produced big pompano to 5 pounds.

For Florida fishing regulations, visit www.myfwc.com.