 |
Tampa Bay - Saltwater
Capt. Matt Ercoli
July 12, 2002
Tampa Bay - Saltwater Fishing Report
Hello fellow fisherman, sorry again for the delayed fishing report. I?m in the middle of prime tarpon season and it?s hard to find time to keep up with everything. It?s definitely my most physically demanding time of the year. Early morning starts, lots of extra cast netting for just the right kind of bait, long hours in the tuna tower swaying back a forth combined with the hot summer sun make for one tired fishing captain at the end of the each day. I?m not complaining but that is the reason why it has taken me this long to keep everyone updated. We have had one heck of a tarpon season up until last week. Even with all the holiday boat traffic I can?t think of a day that we didn?t jump at least a couple of tarpon. Some of our better days we put a dozen fish in the air, most of which ran in the 80 to 130 pound class. The largest tarpon we had on would go 150 plus pounds. It?s not over yet though, we are still catching tarpon even though the holiday did come with a lull in the tarpon fishing. We should still have some good days left before the end of July.
As for large fish, we are still catching goliath grouper to 400 pounds, some nice black tip sharks and a few large nurse sharks. That pretty much sums up the sea monsters.
As for other fish I have been catching some nice snook, not the numbers we are use to seeing earlier in the year but some of them are very nice size snook. As a matter of fact we lost a real monster today. We where sitting on a pod of snook this morning with all the fish running between 36 and 45 inches, and lots of them. We only managed to hook one of them but we didn?t have to wait long, he hit on the very first cast of the day. Sadly after a few runs he managed to shake the hook free. We have boated a few over the last couple of week up to 38 inches and several over 40.
I have started to catch a few reds, as tarpon fishing winds down I will start hunting for them more. Remember August is right around the corner and that is one of our most dependable redfish months with many of the schools being made up of fish in the 30 to 35 inch class.
I am catching a lot of little tunny in the 10 to 15 pound class whenever we head offshore, as well a few nice cobia up to 30 pounds. There are a few permit around here again and I will start to target them more as tarpon slows.
Well, that pretty much sumes up the fishing report. If you are interested in fishing I still have a few days left in July and August, just give me a call. If you are heading out on your own good luck fishing and leave a few for me.
Capt. Matt
More Fishing Reports:
|
|
|
|
