Tampa Bay Area Duck Hunters

[Fred McIntire]

I'm going to be in Florida later this week for Thanksgiving with my children and grandchildren. I was wondering if we have any Florida duck hunters in the Tampa Bay area that I could possibly get in a hunt with? I'll be staying in Pinellas Park, Florida.

Thanks so much,
Fred

 

[Carl]

Fred,
I am here in south Tampa but I havent bought a license or broken out the decoys since I moved down in early 2019.
The only ducks I have seen on the bay are bluebills. With the 1 bird limit for most of the season, and all the other boat traffic, plus a lack of time to scout and learn the area, I just havent been motivated to get out there. I've heard there are redheads here but I have not seen one, not a single buffy to be see either. Very different than the saltwater I hunted around Mobile.
I've been more focused on fishing during the winter, I do about 4-6 trips per year on the full day on Double Eagle out of Clearwater Marina. Using live shrimp from the marina bait shop, and lighter tackle than the boat provides, most days the fishing is pretty amazing. Grunts, porgies, black sea bass, lane snapper and usually a good shot at hogfish.

 

[Fred McIntire]

Fred,
I am here in south Tampa but I havent bought a license or broken out the decoys since I moved down in early 2019.
The only ducks I have seen on the bay are bluebills. With the 1 bird limit for most of the season, and all the other boat traffic, plus a lack of time to scout and learn the area, I just havent been motivated to get out there. I've heard there are redheads here but I have not seen one, not a single buffy to be see either. Very different than the saltwater I hunted around Mobile.
I've been more focused on fishing during the winter, I do about 4-6 trips per year on the full day on Double Eagle out of Clearwater Marina. Using live shrimp from the marina bait shop, and lighter tackle than the boat provides, most days the fishing is pretty amazing. Grunts, porgies, black sea bass, lane snapper and usually a good shot at hogfish.

Carl,

Thank you for the information. I didn't realize there was a 1 bird limit. I too have heard there are Redheads in the area. My last party boat fishing trip was a total disaster! I went on Hubbard's out of, I want to say, John's Pass. The briefing said the waves were 1'-2'. I thought to myself that's no problem. I have fished 2' waves before. Let me tell you! The waves were a steady 3'-5'! We had one or two that were 7'-8'! They came crashing over the bow and soaked everyone. I was so sick that I never even put a line in the water. It was a 5 hour trip. I was miserable. It was so bad that I decided that if I fell overboard I didn't want to be rescued!

If you ever decide to chase a duck or two let me know and maybe we can get together sometime.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Fred

 

[Carl]

To be clear, its one scaup for most of the season, then 2 for the last part of the season.
Last Friday on the way home there were no scaup to be seen on Hillsborough Bay. Yesterday on the way home, there were literally thousands of them rafted up off of Bayshore Drive. What a difference a few days can make.

I have fished offshore for 30 years and I still get sick if its rough. I don't even plan to go if the forecast is 2' or greater!
Last trip I went (earlier this month) it was flat calm most of the day. We wore out the "panfish" and the boat caught more hogfish than I have ever seen caught on a party boat. At least 20 keepers, the only one I had was 1/2" too short!
We had planned to go fishing this Saturday but the forecast is for 4-6', NOPE, staying home!

 

[Carl]

From myFWC:
General Duck - 6 ducks, including no more than 4 mallards (of which only 2 can be female), 4 sea ducks (of which no more than 3 may be scoters, long-tailed ducks, or eiders and no more than 1 may be a female eider), 3 wood ducks, 2 redheads, 2 black ducks, 2 canvasbacks, 3 pintails, 1 mottled duck (Florida duck) and 1 fulvous whistling-duck.
1 scaup from Nov. 22-30 and Dec. 6 – Jan. 5, 2 scaup from Jan. 6-25 and during Youth and Veteran/Military waterfowl hunt days.
Mottled duck/mallard hybrids do not have a separate bag limit but shall be considered either a mallard or mottled duck.

 

[Ed L.]

There are quite a number of Tampa Bay hunters I became aware of when I lived in Tampa. They are a quiet bunch and hard to get information from. I met a teacher when I was there and he took me several times and I even got a nice Mottle duck in an area he took me. We stayed well away from Pinellas county. Pinellas county is designated a bird sanctuary and there is this imaginary line of demarcation that extends across the bay. Locals know where it is but when I asked the local DNR I wasn't offered any coordinates and was told it's just better to not carry a gun in the area! The map shows in red the areas I hunted from a kayak. The upper Bay area is where I lived and the lower red area was where the teacher took me. Blue outline is Pinellas county and the yellow line is the imaginary no crossing line I was told about. Again I don't really know where that line is. I was there from 2010 to 2013 so many things may have changed since then.

Have a great visit and Thanks Giving!

 

[Carl]

Ed,

I believe that FWC and the legislature passed a law/rules that prohibited local governments from restricting hunting on tidal/public waters without going through an FWC rule making process. My understanding is that it was a response to Pinellas & other counties and cities restricting hunting even along undeveloped shorelines. So i dont believe that Pinella county rule is still enforceable.

 

[Ed L.]

Ed,

I believe that FWC and the legislature passed a law/rules that prohibited local governments from restricting hunting on tidal/public waters without going through an FWC rule making process. My understanding is that it was a response to Pinellas & other counties and cities restricting hunting even along undeveloped shorelines. So i dont believe that Pinella county rule is still enforceable.

That would be excellent for local hunters Carl. There was a lot of area in the mangroves around Safety Harbor and south of Courtney Campbell Causeway on the Clearwater side that held ducks and of course that was an area off limits.

 

[Carl]

There was a pile of scaup just north of the Gandy on the Pinellas side this weekend.
Each year I am tempted to get a licence and stamp and hunt the last half, just havent gotten fully motivated!
The fishing is so good year around, its a tough choice.