Last Updated on July 28, 2025 by Capt. Bucky
Tampa Bay is one of the largest estuaries in the state of Florida and host to some of the best fishing the state has to offer. We have certainly had our struggles with seagrass loss and habitat destruction as well as a few major red tide events over the past 5 years. One of the major factors in my area was the construction of the new Howard Franklin Bridge. The disruption of the bottom sediment was a major cause to the quality of the water and a significant factor to the loss of seagrass. Fishing pressure and effects from these environmental “disasters” have greatly effected the fish populations. Well I am excited to see that things are turning around for Tampa Bay!!
Over the past years, places that used to hold countless fish, were completely devoid of life especially when considering the trout populations. This winter there was an unexpected explosion in the trout populations and not only in my area, but throughout the entire Tampa Bay. We had a few days of 50 plus trout coming to the boat. There has also been countless numbers of smaller trout. A great sign of things to come. To me, a healthy trout population is a greater indicator of the health of an estuary, than that of the snook and redfish populations. Trout are far more sensitive to environmental conditions than the other two species, except for snook when it come to water temperatures.
Redfish and Snook populations are also rebounding extremely well. I expect this fall to be one of the best bites we have seen in the past few years. All of this is due to the fact that the seagrass is rebounding nicely. I believe that the two major hurricanes had a great affect to the bay, essentially flushing the upper bay and making is a more suitable environment for the grass to grow. I was curious if the rhizomes (root system for the grass) were still intact. This Spring and Summer we have seen much cleaner water quality and thus the grass has been able to reproduce. we still have a long way to go.
Here are some of the things that I have been seeing that leads me to believe that we are on the up and up. Obviously, I have seen more seagrass than in the past few years, but it’s what the sea grass is attracting, providing and hiding that has me excited. There has been more mullet in my area than in all of the past few years combined. Mullet are such an detrimental species and a lot of fish follow the schools of mullet around, especially redfish. Redfish and other species will follow the larger school or mature mullet around the flats. One for protection, but another reason is for food, not only the mullet themselves, but what the mullet disturb in the grass making it easy pray for redfish, trout, and snook alike. Not to mention jacks, ladyfish, tarpon, and our favorite Mr. Meowgi, Catfish!! As much as we all hate catfish they are a crucial part of the ecosystem, and without them the system would collapse.
Bait fish populations have been incredible this year and with the increase of seagrass there has been a lot more white bait and pinfish on the flats. In the colder months when the bait is not on the flats the bridges were holding an unmeasurable amount of bait. At times it seemed like you could walk from one side of the bay to the other on top of bait under the bridges. Now while the typical things I see when netting bait are there, there has been some other things that really has me excited. Over the past few months, I have seen more tiny creatures caught up in the seagrass and drift algae in my net. A few of those creatures being shrimp and brine shrimp. Every cast of the net I am catching some. Makes me feel like we will have a great fall and winter for tailing redfish.
Other things I am seeing are lots of snails, mollusks, pipefish, needle fish, baby catfish, seahorses, and multiple different species of shrimp and crabs. It basically a smorgasbord for redfish. I once fillet a redfish as a kid that had 29 pipefish in its stomach contents. Mud crabs are countless tiny fish species are also being netted. You know the saying that “elephants eat peanuts” well redfish and trout really do feed on these tiny typically unseen creatures. With all these positive things, I believe that the predators will once again take up Upper Tampa Bay as their home. We now have the food sources readily available to hold some of these fish in place.
Hopefully soon, some of these environmental conservation entities will take on further habitat restoration projects in our area and further the comeback we are seeing today. If you are interest in booking a charter please give me a call 407-977-7650.
