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Tampa Bay - Saltwater
Capt. Matt Ercoli
November 8, 2000
Tampa Bay - Saltwater Fishing Report
Hey everyone, I hope you enjoyed last weeks fishing report. Just remember to come back every Monday for our new up to date fishing report and forecast.
The fishing has been holding strong and the weather could not be any nicer. If I remember correctly, it was flat as glass on the flats everyday this past week. It just seems as if everything is going off right now. If you want to fish for a certain species it's probably biting.
The snook fishing is still great right now but doesn't seem to be as active as the week before. We still managed more keepers this week than the week before. We also had a few fish over the 34-inch slot limit. My partner Capt. Shawn Crawford also had similar results. We were both averaging between 15 and 20 snook per day.
The red fishing has picked up since last week. About 5 days ago we started getting into them and they are progressively getting better. Most of the reds right now seem to be falling into the slot range and are averaging between 22 and 26 inches. I hope this trend continues and I believe it will if the wind doesn't turn and start blowing hard out of the north. We don't have extreme high tides right now so a stiff north wind could potentially keep the reds off the flats and make them more difficult to locate.
Trout went out of season Nov. 1, just as we started catching numbers of nice size fish. I bet we caught 10 around 18 inches yesterday while snook fishing.
The cobia are still around, we had a couple of small ones but nothing like the ones I have been seeing from atop my tower. I saw two this week between 60 and 70 pounds, we just couldn't manage to get bait in front of them.
We are catching monster jacks, they have been like clock work everyday at the same flat on the same tide. Massive schools ranging between 10 and 20 lbs are showing up in schools of 100 to 2000 fish. Yesterday Ben Coplan landed a 15 pounder after wading and casting to a massive school of jacks in one foot of water. The fish managed to blow up my 9 weight Orvis fly rod before Ben had him subdued. The jack made a blistering first run that actually seized Ben's drag on his fly reel. This type of fishing is truly the ultimate for fly fishermen who would like to spot and stalk a tackle buster on a skinny flat.
As for offshore fishing, I personally have not been out there because we have plenty to catch on the flats right now. Plenty of big kingfish are starting to come in right now. One guy brought a 60 pounder in this week, which is one drag stripping tackle buster.
There are lots of great near shore grouper fishing going on right now. I think I'll head offshore to let my fly guys take a whack at some kings and tuna on the fly.
You couldn't choose a better time for a more pleasurable day on the water. Whether you prefer light tackle or fly fishing, my partner and I still have a few days available this month. If you're interested give one of us a call or drop one of us email.
Catch you on the water ,
Capt. Matt Ercoli
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