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Early Spring Fishing Turning On
Capt. Matt Ercoli
April 1, 2009
Tampa Bay - Saltwater Fishing Report
Hello from Anna Maria! The weather is starting to warm up around here and the water is climbing into the mid 70's. Flats fishing has been really good the past couple of weeks since my last report. Lots of snook including more keeper size fish. Mixed in with them are some really nice redfish. Pretty much most of the reds are nice keeper size, 24 to 27 inches, with a few over 30 inches. Today I ran a half day charter; we were done at noon and had caught about 30 snook and 10 redfish. The redfish where all nice 7 to 8 pounders except for one short and one 10 plus pound 30 incher. It was a very typical day for this time of year and for what it's been like the last few weeks. We have had some nice snook as well, no monsters lately, but that's because I have been targeting a few schools that have hundreds of small to medium snook with lots of perfect size eating redfish. It's a lot of fun, really shallow water and you can see snook everywhere. They are biting like crazy so that keeps it action packed while we wait for the larger redfish to move in. Although a lot of the snook are not keepers they are exciting to catch and we still have had some nice ones this past week in the shallow water that would go 32 inches. If trophy snook are what you are looking for and have more patience's they too are really starting to heat up is Sarasota bay.
So what else is going on? Well the trout have been really good as well. On the day I have guys who are looking for fish to eat I have some great trout spots that have been good producers. We have been hitting them the last hour or so of the fishing day and filling the box with some nice fat 17 to 22 inchers.
Tarpon, everyone's been asking about tarpon. I know they are out there and we can catch them right now, but so far they haven't really been strong in what I consider fishable numbers. Until we start hitting those days when at least 3 to 6 hook ups are the norm it's hard to make a charter out of them. I will say though that the water is warming quickly and the bay tarpon fishing could explode any day. There are lots of nice grouper biting in the bay where we tarpon fish though.
As for offshore fishing, I have not been partly because the flats fishing is so good, but mostly because the wind has been strong out of the southwest this past week, fine for flats fishing but not so good for offshore. I can about guarantee the kings, tunny and grouper should be tearing it up, the water temp is getting right for them.
Well that's what we have going on in these parts. I hope you have enjoyed the fishing report. I have some tarpon days still available for the peek migration, May thru July, if anyone interested. Last year my boat was 100% on tarpon hook ups, let's see if we can do it again.
Tampa Bay Fishing Forecast:
Expecting water temps to continue to rise and trigger tarpon and offshore fishing.
Target Species:
Snook, Redfish & Trout, offshore soon
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