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Tampa Bay - Saltwater
Capt. Matt Ercoli
April 9, 2002
Tampa Bay - Saltwater Fishing Report
I can?t believe it?s already April, where did March go to? It was an awesome month and I would have to say we closed it off with a bang and opened April with an even bigger one. Here is a description of the past few days. At 7:30 we left the dock, shortly after 8am we hooked our first tarpon. Around 10:00 Dennis Hanson had his first tarpon in the boat, a solid 100 pounder. Shortly after that his son was hooked up with one larger than the first. We got four good fighting jumps and he eventually pulled loose. We hooked on to another and he too broke us off, the guys were ready for something different. About 12:30 we where on the snook and were they ever biting. We sat in one spot until it was time to head in and never moved. We had double and triple hook-ups for two and a half-hours. All in all I would say we boated probably 40 or 50 snook, four of which were keeper size and I don?t know how many more we broke off. We left them biting, had we stayed we probably could have caught a hundred or so, it was fast as snook CATCHING gets.
Last week was equally as good. I spent most of the week chasing quality snook rather than quantity. We boated snook everyday, a few over 30 inches. The largest was 37 inches and the angler who caught that one broke off one of the largest snook I have ever had on a hook before. That?s ok though, the 37 incher was his first snook ever, had he boated the one before he would have no reason to come back and chase snook with me.
Cobia are starting to make a strong showing on the flats. Today we blew a shot on a real giant. The largest we boated this past week was 40 pounds on ten-pound test, the battle lasted over 45 minutes.
As for other fishing, reds are starting to show in good numbers worth fishing. I have not bothered with them much and have passed them up to chase snook. There are schools of nothing but keepers, and schools of nothing but over size bull reds roaming the bay.
The permit fishing has also started, most fish are in the 10 to 20 pound class from what I am told. I would like to get out there and fish them soon, but with tarpon, snook and cobia fishing what it is, I just plain have more than enough going on to bother with them.
Well that pretty-much sums up the fishing for this week, it is about as good as it gets and the weather is equally as nice. Actually it is pretty typical for this time of year. I still have a few tarpon dates available, if you are interested give me a call, I am now filling up July.
See you on the water!
Capt Matt Ercoli
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