Tampa Bay Fishing Report

Capt. TJ Stewart
October 16, 2007
Tampa Bay - Saltwater Fishing Report

Tarpon on!

Man what a bite! If you can say it we have been catching it and then some! The fishing is really going off; it’s that time of the year when the fish eat like crazy before they starve themselves for the winter. It’s all been good even bait has been everywhere. Put it this way if you know an area where fish have been hanging out you can bet that there is some bait within 300 yards. It’s time to go catch that big fish before this season is over. We have 1-1/2 months left.

Starting with a bang this past week we finally got to do a little Tarpon fishing. Well I say a little, all of the fish were over 100 lbs. so there really wasn't anything small or little about them. It was a windy week but we got to do a lot of good fishing. The Tarpon that we caught were around the Sky Way Bridge so there aren’t too many areas to get out of the wind. But just because it was rough doesn’t mean that the fish weren’t biting. The Tarpon of the week was a fish that was over 150 lbs the picture is a fish that is about 150. What a great fish and an even better fight. The fish in the picture took about 45 minutes to land. It was a great fight. These fish will be here till the water temp gets below 70 degrees that is usually when we stop catching the fish in that area.

Snook fishing has been really good also. Over the past few weeks we have had a lot of bigger fish starting to show up. We caught a lot of fish that were in that great slot 28-33 but the numbers of fish that where 22-27 where unbelievable. It is a really good thing to see so many of these fish even though we have been catching a good number of fish all summer long just not quite this size. When you catch a 25-27 inch Snook they put up an awesome fight. Most of the trips we have been catching well over 20 plus Snook easy. At times we have doubled or even tripled this number! And that is not counting how many other types of fish we have caught with these great fish.

The Red fish bite has been sticking right in there with the numbers but the size has been a little smaller. The size limit for the Red fish is 18-27 and most of the fish we have been catching have been in this range. Just like the Snook we have had some outstanding Red fish mixed in with these smaller fish as well. Some of the schools of fish have been big but they haven’t been eating as good as the smaller fish or the slot fish. You get a Red fish that is 25 plus inches you have a fight on your hands as well. We did manage to catch a few fish that were well over the slot pushing 33 inches or a little better. This fish on the light tackle is just about unstoppable. Come see for yourself!Come see pictures www.castawaychartersinc.com

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