The Pipe (Gulfstream gas pipeline)

What Tampa Bay anglers call 'the Pipe' (Tampa Bay Times) is the Gulfstream Natural Gas System, the first transmission pipeline built across the Gulf: 581 miles from Alabama to Florida, in service since May 28, 2002 (EPA). BSEE's segment ends in lower Tampa Bay off Port Manatee, and the 27-mile shallow-water stretch from Port Manatee to about 20 miles west of the Skyway was laid and buried in 2001 (Power Engineering). The Times reports the pipe was buried from about 200 feet of depth shoreward, with rock piles where the bottom was too hard to dig and piles of 1-ton limestone boulders and concrete reef modules along the route, all of which hold reef fish. From the bay mouth it runs west-northwest across the shelf, crossing 60 feet near 83°03.5'W; NOAA's bathymetry along it reads about 94 feet at 83°15'W, 112 at 83°30'W, 154 at 84°W and 233 at 84°30'W. It passes about 11 nautical miles south of the Florida Middle Grounds and about 0.4 nautical miles off the northeast corner of Steamboat Lumps, and NOAA's chart notes that sections of it are known to be exposed.

How to fish it

Load the line from a NOAA chart, then idle along beside it with the sounder on, watching for rock piles, boulder sites and bait; the structure isn't continuous. Drift or fish the marks you find, but don't drop an anchor on the line itself. The Times says the bite is often good a couple of days after rough weather.