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Tampa Bay - Saltwater
Capt. Matt Ercoli
November 22, 2000
Tampa Bay - Saltwater Fishing Report
The wind was blowing 10 Knots from the south, the sun had just barely risen and the tide was high and just about to ebb. The approaching cold front had set the scene for absolute perfect conditions. Harlan Gross stood on the bow of my boat armed with an 8-weight fly, looking down in the shallow water around the mangroves awaiting the word. " Let it rip," I said, they should be ready. Shortly after, we watched the first snook of the day hop on Harlan's fly just inches from below the surface of the flat clear water. The fish came off though, but Harlan was hooked up again two casts latter. I already knew this was to be a banner day. Sunday morning I never moved the boat more than 20 ft. and Harlan boated between 12 and 15 snook on a fly and the largest was 25 inches. Believe it or not, for every snook we landed Harlan missed or lost two more. No offence to Harlan though, that's just snook fishing. I had to add that so you could have an idea how good the snook fishing really was. Later that afternoon Harlan boated 25 lady fish on the fly and I caught a few myself. That was possibly the largest school of ladyfish I have ever seen, big ones too. The school was probably 200 by 50 yds. of nothing but crashing fish, it didn't matter what pattern you were using. Later we caught a keeper snook on live bait for dinner and then headed back to the dock to call it a banner day. I have to say that topped off last week, although we had better days on live bait. You can't beat this time of year for a fall fly fishing charter.
We had excellent snook fishing this past week but the real bonus was cobia. Everyday we had fair opportunities to hook up with one of these bad boys. The largest we caught was 45 inches and around 35 pounds; it was the first cobia I have ever seen tail walk. Tail walk he did, for 20 ft or so, just like a sailfish. We subdued him in 30 min. on 10-LB test spinning tackle. We have also been catching hoards of trout, a few nice flounder and slot reds.
Well this cold front is sitting on top of us and it's been pretty darn cold the last couple of mornings. It has definitely slowed the fishing but I think it will start to bounce back tomorrow afternoon or the next day. Remember, although the fish are cold blooded they still have to eat. Cold fronts make for ultra low tides. Although the bite is slower the fish are much more bunched up, when you're on them you will be on lots of fish, when your not they are sparse. It's almost an equal trade off, even though the bite is slow a good fisherman can produce fish if he knows were those big schools of deep-water fish are located. Slowing down your fishing and presentation are key elements.
I hope you have enjoyed my report, give Capt. Shawn or myself a call when you're ready to go fishing.
Good luck on the water,
Captain Matt Ercoli
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