Don Kelly's Ozello Shrimper | Recreational Shrimping Equipment and Information

For the past two years, Ozello Shrimper has provided tide and shrimping predictions for the West Central Florida location known as Bunces Pass located in the mouth of Tampa Bay just South of St. Petersburg, Florida. We do this not only because we ourselves shrimp that area each year but also because shrimpers have continued to tell us that these predictions are one of the most useful tools they find online for planning their shrimping expeditions.

So, in the spirit of continuing to help shrimpers whenever possible, Ozello Shrimper is again providing a custom shrimping and tide prediction for shrimpers in the area. We hope you enjoy it.

How to Use these Predictions

The article divides the Tampa Bay shrimping season into week time periods and gives an evaluation of each day within the week. You can view weekly or daily tide predictions as well as moon phase information by clicking on the thumbnail images. Monthly text charts can be found at the end of the article. You can scroll between daily tide charts and moon phases from within the image viewer as well. To move between weekly time periods, use the navigation bar in the bottom right corner of each page. If you use Google Calendar, feel free to add these predictions to your personal calendar using the button to the right.

While this article focuses primarily on the conditions for shrimping in the area, you will find a few entries that describe the probabilities of catching shrimp during the noted time period as well as some tips on how to catch them. Of particular note this year is our inclusion of a new category of shrimping prediction noted by the color purple. This year, tidal conditions have changed to align New Moon cycles with extreme low tides on weekends. We have noted the particular weekends during the height of shrimping season that are most likely to occur during its peak.

Please keep in mind that the tide predictions used herein are based on Boga Ciega Bay in Gulfport, Florida and the predictions and advice listed herein are for shrimpers using grass shrimping methods such as the Ozello Shrimper. It has been our experience that the tide predictions for Boga Ciega are most accurate when trying to predict the tides in or around Bunces Pass. Variations may occur based upon where you ultimately choose to go shrimping. Please do not make any navigational or life safety decisions based on this information.

General Overview of Predictions

This year portends to be singular for other reasons than just the alignment of the strong tides and new moon cycles with the weekends. It also comes on the heels of a significant freeze that has affected the Tampa Bay area during the month of January. News media and fisherpeople from the area have thoroughly documented the extensive damage to fish populations that extreme low temperatures have caused. Reports have come in of ice on Tampa Bay!

Needless to say, the scope of the damage to marine life is significant and we could throw our hats in with the naysayers that say it has caused irreperable harm to the ecosystem.  Instead, we believe that from destruction comes rebirth in the marine world and that it is part of a natural cycle that, like red tide nearly four years ago, tends to benefit the bottom of the food chain - in this case shrimp.

January is a key month for the growth of shrimp and despite record temperature drops, the cold still does not appear to have reached temperatures that would reduce the growth rate of shrimp based upon recently discovered research of the local shrimp population conducted in 1968. If anything, research indicates that it may very well encourage their growth further. Combined with low predator populations and a massive increase in the food supply (dead fish), we have a potential recipe for an outstanding season. Ask any shrimper who was out on the water in 2006 and they will confirm the massive size and numbers of shrimp that appeared after the red tide!

These predictions of course are based upon past circumstances, trends and known research but they could be modified or mitigated by any number of outside factors such as the level of rain, increases in water salinity, red tides, or other unexpected circumstances such as pollution or spills. Despite these potential influences, we feel that this year's shrimping season will be one of the best of the last five years and an excellent way to start the new year in light of recent tragedies affecting our estuary.