Fla Gulf coast inshore late March

[mike1010]

My wife and are planning to go, probably hitting a few places between Tampa and Fort Meyers. Any suggestions on what might be running? Thanks for any information.

[Jigman13]

Skyway pier is one of my favorite gag grouper spots. I bring tuna popping gear, 80 lb fluoro and 4x heavy duty circle hooks.

You can also fish lighter for mangrove snapper, spanish mackeral and such. Sabikis tipped with shrimp to make bait... pinfish, greenbacks, pigfish, blue runners... they sell shrimp on the pier.

[Gerry Zagorski]

Most common catches that time of year are Snook and Sea Trout with an occasional Grouper, Jack Crevalle or Redfish in the mix. Cobia fishing is good in March but you'd have to specifically target them. You might find some resident Tarpon around too but most of the migrating fish don't arrive until mid April.

Are you planning on going out on a boat or fishing from land??

In ether case live shrimp is a good bet but be sure and spend the extra money on hand selects/larger ones.

Cast netting live bait gives you a big advantage down that way so if you have the means, that's where I would invest some time and energy and the easiest places to target them will be around bridge supports.

[mike1010]

Thanks for the specific pointers, guys.