Saltwater Fishing Fort Desoto, Florida - What's Biting? Fellow Anglers Make Fishing Worth It!

Added: 2026-05-14

[00:00:00]As you can see, guys, there's a ton of bait right here just hanging right on the pier. Incoming tide, the bait are going to be on the up-current side of the pier.

[00:00:09]So, a lot of times I'll like to fish below the bait.

[00:00:13]Oops, there we go. Another something.

[00:00:17]All right, guys. Welcome back. This is Matt with Saltwater Outdoors and we are back out here at Fort De Soto. We're going to be fishing both piers today, the Gulf Pier and the Bay Pier.

[00:00:26]Right now we are on the Bay Pier, which is the smaller of the two.

[00:00:30]As you can see, both piers get packed quick. And this is the middle of the week, so the weekends get really crazy out here.

[00:00:38]Uh the fishing's been inconsistent, but hey, you know, that's why they call it fishing. So, let's start out on the Gulf Pier. I'll see you out there.

[00:00:56]All right, guys.

[00:00:59]So, we are at the Fort De Soto Gulf Pier.

[00:01:03]Got winds out of the south, so they're at my back. And we have an incoming tide, so they're working against each other, which has really slowed down the tide.

[00:01:13]Oops.

[00:01:14]I got a fish on.

[00:01:17]No idea what this is. Oh, no.

[00:01:20]We're not starting out our day well.

[00:01:22]>> [laughter] >> A lizard fish.

[00:01:25]But, hopefully once the tide gets moving, you know, we'll get on some pompano, Spanish mackerel.

[00:01:31]Not these guys.

[00:01:32]Um yeah, we're going to start out with the pompano jig, switch over to uh live bait in between there and see what we can get on.

[00:01:44]All right, guys.

[00:01:45]The water's starting to clear up a little bit and it's starting to come in more, so it's always a good sign.

[00:01:51]And first fish of the day, nice little whiting.

[00:01:55]We've got a really enough fish in the cooler though.

[00:02:04]And we just did a catch and cook one of these guys, so let this guy get live another day.

[00:02:12]Get him when he's twice the size.

[00:02:17]Well, I thought that was a pompano.

[00:02:21]All right, guys. Looks like fishing is starting to turn on, so let's get to it.

[00:02:26]Like I said, all I'm using is classic pompano jig.

[00:02:29]This is the Buccaneer Wiggler with the teasers, which I get off of eBay.

[00:02:36]I'm using 30-lb monofilament leader.

[00:02:40]It's usually pretty heavy. When you pompano fish, you want to use about 20, maybe even 15-lb leader, but because the water is so stirred up, uh the fish can't see as well, so you can get away with a little bit heavier leader. But, uh 30 is as heavy as I would go.

[00:03:00]All right, guys. Moved a little bit further down the pier.

[00:03:03]Usually I fish the uh the first little island, but uh the water in, you know, close to shore there is really stirred up.

[00:03:13]Out here, you know, just 50 yd away, the water is much clearer, so see if that makes a difference.

[00:03:22]You know, in that dirtier water makes it really hard for the fish to see your lure or bait.

[00:03:28]You know, sometimes just moving a little bit will make all the difference, especially when you're fishing, you know, on or near a beach.

[00:03:46]All right, guys. Just saw somebody catch a Spanish on a pompano jig, so let's throw out the Sabiki rig.

[00:03:53]Get a bait and put that on a long shank J-hook.

[00:04:00]Free line it out there.

[00:04:07]All right, guys. So, finally on the Sabiki rod got a pilchard.

[00:04:11]These are the perfect size for Spanish mackerel, the uh you know, 3 4-in ones.

[00:04:19]So, my rod here is a little bit big for these guys, but it will work.

[00:04:25]But, all I'm using is 30-lb leader, a 4/0 long shank J-hook.

[00:04:31]Hook them right in the back.

[00:04:34]And because we have an outgoing tide going, you know, back out into the bay, you don't have to cast far.

[00:04:42]Maybe 20 ft and then let it float out with the tide.

[00:04:48]Have your drag set pretty loose.

[00:04:52]And if they're here, they're going to eat it.

[00:04:55]All right, he wants to stay close to the pier, so we got to go a little bit further out.

[00:05:11]All right, guys. We are coming over to the Fort De Soto bay pier, which is actually the first pier that you come to when you are entering the park.

[00:05:25]So, you see here, got the Skyway in the background.

[00:05:30]This is the smaller of the two piers, so it gets packed very fast.

[00:05:37]But, uh let's see what we can do out here.

[00:05:48]I'm on the other one.

[00:05:50]>> All right guys, we got some smaller pompano over here.

[00:05:56]But it's a good sign to at least see them.

[00:06:10]>> [laughter] >> They can hear you.

[00:06:23]Yeah.

[00:06:27]Oh, so you I mean you've caught all shorts though? Yeah. Okay.

[00:06:31]At least that's something. I couldn't I couldn't believe I didn't I mean not a single hit over there. Like I think I started going there for hours.

[00:06:40]Yeah.

[00:06:42]And I mean and there there were five of us jigging over there.

[00:06:45]Nothing.

[00:07:01]All right guys, I heard a lot of lady fish around so the pompano are running small.

[00:07:09]Trying to single out a keeper is going to be pretty difficult.

[00:07:14]Tons of bait here now.

[00:07:15]You guys can see.

[00:07:16]Huge school of threadfin.

[00:07:21]Actually biting my line.

[00:07:25]All right guys, got on a blue runner.

[00:07:28]These guys make excellent baits.

[00:07:33]Especially offshore.

[00:07:34]So, we're going to save that guy for a red snapper trip.

[00:07:41]Those guys just cut off the tail, put them on hold.

[00:07:44]You get some monster snapper on those.

[00:08:09]Get it on Tim Harrison, but not Unbelievable.

[00:08:30]>> [laughter] [laughter] >> Uh You guys have just lost keeper pompano over here.

[00:08:46]Apparently, they've been catching them all morning, but all shorts.

[00:08:50]I started on the wrong pier.

[00:08:52]>> [laughter] >> Nothing is biting the pompano jigs right now, so Uh when nothing bites for about a half hour, I go and switch it up.

[00:09:03]Doesn't mean you're going to catch something, but it's better than continuing to throw the same thing and getting nothing.

[00:09:12]Oop.

[00:09:13]That was something.

[00:09:22]So, as the water warms up here, you're going to get a lot of mangrove snapper that come on these pilings.

[00:09:29]So, don't think they're really here yet, but there's a chance we get on one.

[00:09:43]>> All right, guys. Well, not a not a snapper, but a little flounder.

[00:09:50]Uh this guy's definitely the future of the fishery, but he is very tiny.

[00:09:57]Might be 9 in. Ooh, ow.

[00:10:00]He's got some sharp teeth.

[00:10:01]Zip. Let's get this guy back real quick.

[00:10:05]There are a lot of those guys around the pier. Um he actually hit it right here by this piling.

[00:10:14]Usually with the flounder, you're going to find them all about the same size.

[00:10:17]So, I find I either find like one big one big one or a bunch of little ones.

[00:10:39]As you see, guys, there's a ton of bait right here just hanging right on the pier. Incoming tide, the bait are going to be on the up-current side of the pier.

[00:10:48]So, a lot of times I'll like to fish below the bait.

[00:10:51]Oop, there we go. Another something.

[00:10:54]Oh, another lookdown.

[00:10:57]Okay.

[00:10:59]Caught one of these guys at the other side.

[00:11:02]Don't catch these guys very often here in uh Tampa Bay, but cool fish.

[00:11:12]Got lovebugs all over me.

[00:11:14]Sorry, dude. I know this is not ideal.

[00:11:18]All right, there we go.

[00:11:28]And something.

[00:11:30]Yep.

[00:11:31]We are on the baby flounder.

[00:11:37]Wow.

[00:11:41]And yeah, these guys nowhere close to keeper size. They got to be 14 in. But but we are finding some fish.

[00:11:53]So that one, I threw this jig way under the pier and then slowly jigged it back.

[00:12:05]See, a lot of times grouper will sit under here, too.

[00:12:19]Just like the pompano jig, slowly jig it on the bottom.

[00:12:23]Something wants it, it's going to take it.

[00:12:31]All right, guys. We had a fun day. Um, you know, really only just fished till about 11:30 in the morning. Once the sun gets really high out here, the fish tend to go way out deeper or not bite at all.

[00:12:44]And I mean, hey, we caught some fish.

[00:12:46]And you know, week to week here is always different. You know, you'll have one week where the fishing is amazing and you're like, "Wow, let's get back out there." And then the next week it's you know, it's crickets. So uh there's definitely fish around. It's just most of the time here, it's very dependent on the tides and water clarity.

[00:13:07]Water clarity started out very poor this morning. Cleared up and you know, once I got to the bay pier, I realized that people were catching pompano in the morning.

[00:13:18]Um but yeah, the tide this morning very slow. You want a faster moving tide out here that really gets the fish active because the bait fish, you know, they've got to fight hard against the current.

[00:13:29]It's easy for them to catch the baitfish. Plus, the predatory fish like Spanish mackerel, pompano, are able to get away from dolphins quicker. So, and we we'll be getting back out here again soon. Um hoping that the Skyway improves. Uh definite definitely improved from the last trip. So, yeah guys, thank you for watching and subscribing. I'll see you guys in the next episode.