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| ** | At the very top of Tampa Bay, there’s a shining example of how a convenient and pristine setting, highlighted by clear waters and mangrove line forests, can provide a welcome retreat from the bustle of everyday life in the city. Upper Tampa Bay, as its known, is a gift to all who treasure fishing and the great outdoors. This generous slice of the big bay is home to a broad array of wildlife, including abundant schools of Florida’s most popular gamefish. | |
Its brackish waters provide a refuge from the frequent red tide outbreaks that have stricken most west coast fishing venues.
Sometimes referred to as “Old Tampa Bay,” it’s waters range from the Courtney Campbell Causeway all the way up to the northern reaches of the bay. On its western perimeter are intricate canals and oyster shorelines running from the wide expanses by the Bay Bridge, over along the villages of Safety Harbor, Oldsmar, to the Double Branch area, around to the verdant waters on the north side of the Courtney Campbell Causeway. There the angler can find many intriguing mangrove lined passes, inlets and canals like A-Channel, the unspoiled coves of Dick’s Creek and Rocky Creek, and to the eastern shores of Bay Pointe and Sweetwater. In the open flats, the rich grasses provide ideal habitat for abundant speckled trout, bluefish, cobia and other shallow water fishes. The fishing possibilities provided there are infinite.
Now, with winter coming on, many of these cozy confines will be home to a number of favored target species. Among the first arrivals in the cooling fall waters are great schools of spawning redfish, swiftly moving along the oyster crusted creeks and canals, depositing the next generations of reds.
In cooler weather, local fishing enthusiasts do a lot of dock fishing in Sweetwater, a community on the easternmost shore of Upper Tampa Bay. The series of residential canals provide refuge for many snook, redfish and other subtropical gamefish seeking a more sheltered and comfortable habitat. Tampa’s Gary Poyssick, whose home has access to A Channel savors these cooler months. “We call them “dock months” because, from now through winter, we head straight for the residential canals and the many docks. And the more structure on a dock, the better it is. We like to skip-cast shrimp under there and pull out some beautiful linesiders and redfish.” He adds that “it’s not unusual this time of year to find larger tarpon in those canals enjoying the more temperate conditions.”
By Winter, it’s not uncommon to locate large schools of snook basking in warmer waters within sight of nearby Tampa Road. “I’ve seen days were they lay in the blackest, darkest mud bottoms, remaining there until early spring, “said Poyssick.
What makes Upper Tampa Bay so unique from a fishing point of view is it’s diversity. “I fish some areas right by the Courtney Campbell Causeway that are 14-feet deep. And then you have a lot of flats and many different edges to work across the way. There’s Alligator Lake, the bridges, the area where they just imploded the Oldsmar Power Plant – all featuring lots of oyster bars and some really good hard bottom.”
The most convenient access point for anglers would be the main ramp on the northeast side of the Campbell Causeway. In the cooler months anglers can head out just a few hundred yards from the ramp and begin drifting the miles rich grasses between the causeway and the pristine opposite shoreline.
Waders can fish some many productive rocks, oyster beds and grasses right off the Causeway around the main ramp, by the big bridge, and the smaller bridge near the western shore.
A Channel, to the north and west of the Causeway Ramp, is another excellent site to work this time of year. “It’s a channel that was actually dug out of oyster bars, and has really hard mangrove lined edges with good depths, about 6 or 8-feet deep on a higher tide,” Said Poyssick. Many others head straight for “the bushes” and work the almost endless mangrove edges and creeks on across the way.
“You really have to fish off the Courtney Campbell Causeway on high water,” cautions Capt. Mark Gore, “because there are many areas where you can get stuck on some really negative tides.” He adds that “coming back out of places like Double Branch, there’s a very thin slot surrounded by oyster bars that you can sneak through. But it can be especially difficult on lower tides.”
“You know a lot of the southern areas of Tampa Bay tend to be very muddy and sandy,” said Poyssick. “But that’s not the kind of bottom found in Old Tampa Bay. There’s a lot of rather hard bottom, with rocks, oyster bars – many places to ding your prop, so you’d better keep an eye on the varying water depths.”
The aforementioned Double Branch is special to many anglers like Gore and Poyssick. It is easily reached via boat from the Causeway Ramp. There is also access from a launch area for paddle craft and smaller vessels right off Tampa Road. Many springs, great sand bars, and oyster bottoms surrounded by acres of mangroves, make Double Branch an ideal fishery habitat.
Gore who regularly takes his charters to this quite productive part of the bay said that the pressures are much less here in the upper part of the bay. “To be honest, I really don’t know why many more people don’t fish there. But to tell you the truth, that lower fishing pressure helps – so I’m not complaining.”
Most typically use light flats tackle for fishing there, but it’s not a bad idea to have a heavier outfit or two, as you can encounter some very large snook, tarpon or cobia at many of these locations.
Upper Tampa Bay is well worth including on your fishing itinerary, especially during this cooler time of the year. The brackish waters in late fall and through the winter present a cozy and productive setting that can be enjoyed by the great variety of fish as well as the anglers who pursue them.
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