Pompano Fishing in the Tampa Bay Area
There are many ways to fish for pompano and you have a good chance of catching them if you just use some common sense and have a little knowledge about their habits. If you have a shallow draft skiff, you can find pompano schools fairly easily. Run along the beaches, close to the swash channel, on full plane and have someone watch your wake for pompano “skipping”. They have a tendency to jump out of the water when frightened and skip along the surface on their side. When your observer sees this, you immediately turn around and stop the boat so you can began fishing that area. Remember that pompano are schooling fish and where you see one, there are always a lot more. You can take the “blind” approach to fishing for them like many bridge and pier anglers, and just cast your lure or bait all day until a school swims by and you hook up. If you know that pompano love sand fleas, small crabs and other mollusks, you will fish along beaches where there is an abundance of sand fleas. Bridge pilings are another great place to fish for them, where the barnacles have built up over the years and there are a lot of small crabs, shrimp and other shellfish living among the barnacle growth.
Several baits work for pompano, including sand fleas, (live are best but frozen will work if fresh) fiddler crabs, and bloodworms. Some of you may have another bait or two that you use, but these are the basics. Fish them on the bottom with a weight small enough to hold them down but not so big as to hinder the movement along the bottom with the current. Pompano are always moving along the beaches looking for a meal being swept along with the wave action. Walking the beaches and casting jigs into the surf is another method of fishing for pompano. If you find a spot of beach with a lot of sand fleas then you know that it is a good spot for pompano. As for jigs, the old stand-by is a to ounce yellow or white bullet-headed jig wrapped with the same color hair cut off at the bend of the hook. Pompano are notorious short strikers. Our pompano are growing up to be two to three pounds now and they can really give you a good scrap on light tackle. Try a few of these techniques and you will soon become addicted to pompano fishing and eating broiled, stuffed, grilled, baked, or fried fresh pompano every week. Post some pictures of your catch or post on the fishing forums and blogs.
