Tarpon Everywhere in Tampa Bay
Capt. Matt Ercoli
June 6, 2010
Tampa Bay - Saltwater Fishing Report
Tarpon fishing has been tremendous so far. The weather has been extremely cooperative, Tarpon are everywhere, and they are biting. I haven't had even a half day that we haven't hooked at least 5 or 6 on my Tarpon charters. On my full day Tarpon charters the average has been about 10 to 12 hook ups. We have had a few full days we have hooked upwards of 20. Pretty much we just quit counting. I had one 4 hour trip where we hooked 15 and they decided to head in early after battling so many Tarpon. It has been really good. This is looking like it's going to be a banner year for my Tarpon fisherman. As usual the average fish is 75 to 125 pounds. We had a few really small ones, even as small as 40 pounds. We had some monster 200 pounders on and lost them but have boated a few over 150lbs thus far. Tarpon should run strong around here till the end of July since they started late. Of course there are always those schools in the upper bay feeding on glass minnows that can make for some tremendous action.
Flats fishing are equally good. There are more Redfish around than I have ever seen before. Though I have been spending most of my day's Tarpon fishing, going out and catching 20 to 30 Reds in a day of flats fishing is no problem. Most of the Redfish are in the 25 to 34 inch class, nice size fighters, along with a few top of the slot keepers.
The Trout fishing is really easy now too. The water is hot so we are not getting as many of the really large ones as we where a month ago, but all the keepers you want. When I'm not Tarpon fishing catching a limit of Trout has been less than an hour process.
Two days ago I ran a flats charter and we limited out on Trout in less than an hour. Then we went and caught Reds up to 32 inches. I usually don't mix my Tarpon charters with a flats trip but I had some extra crabs and the guys started to mention Tarpon so we spent about an hour and landed a 100 and 125 pounders. It's just been that easy.
I have not spent anytime offshore in the last week. Some of my associates have been out there and say they have been doing really well on Red Snapper to 20 pounds, Mangrove Snapper up to 7 and 8 pounds and plenty of keeper Grouper.
I have been getting a lot of email from concerned fisherman about the oil. As of now it covers 15 percent of the gulf and it is hundreds of miles away from us here in Tampa Bay. They have closed fishing something like a hundred miles off our coast for precautionary reasons. I know one guy that was out 80 miles two days ago and saw no signs of oil and caught lots of fish. As of now we think most the oil will get sucked out by the Gulf loop over 100 miles out and be taken into the Atlantic. I guess lucky for us, but it may be bad news for the keys and especially Miami where the Gulf loop is something like 4 miles out. I hope like hell they get it stopped soon. In this day and age it's ridiculous that any coastal town in America should have to deal with this. I feel very badly for those who call the Louisiana coast home. BP better pay out the nose for this one. The good news is that there is no way that Floridians will ever let them drill off our coast now, which has been a big concern for years.
Well I hope you have enjoyed my report. I have a few limited spaces for Tarpon fishing in June and a few more for July. Let me know if you want to go out and smoke some Tarpon. Until the next report good luck fishing, it has been a beautiful summer on the water so far.
Capt. Matt
www.CaptainMatt.com
800-521-2872
C- 941-447-9888
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