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Tampa Bay - Saltwater
Capt. Matt Ercoli
October 30, 2000
Tampa Bay - Saltwater Fishing Report
How are all you net surfers doing out there? If your local fishing is as good as ours right now, you need to turn off your computer, pick up a fishing rod and head out fishing. If not, you need to book the first flight to Tampa Bay. The fishing is as hot as it gets right now, that’s simply the best way to put it. Fall is in the air; the water temperature is slowly dropping, and the days could not be more beautiful. My partner, Capt. Shawn and I are having the best fall fishing in our careers. Snook, redfish, trout, cobia, and monster jacks are all cruising the flats, thick as thieves. Over the last couple of weeks, I can't think of a day with slow action, even in the high winds of last week. The snook fishing is definitely topping the list. Cooling water temperatures have finally moved schools of trophy fish onto the flats. These schools of snook are in the range of 34" to 45". Since these fish are coming from offshore, they have had little to no pressure since last spring. This makes them extremely vulnerable, and last week proved it! Between my partner's boat and mine, we had three snook in the 40" class. The largest was Brett Galloway's of Tampa, 43" 27 lbs, caught on captain Shawn's boat using 10 lb test line, talk about a drag screamer. Congratulations Brett! My best belonged to Mark Smith of Akron, Ohio, 24 lbs and 40", which we bagged three days ago, it was a beautiful fish. As for small snook, I literally had a few days when we lost count. I know one day we must have caught nearly 50 snook on live bait which were between 20" and 28", not giants but great fighters on light tackle.
The redfishing has also been quite good. Most of our redfish are falling between 23" and 26", perfect slot fish. Most of my reds are coming out of 4 to 5ft of water. This is because of the low tides combined with north and east winds. I have also been fishing a large school of bull reds in shallow water, and most of
these fish are too large to keep, most over 27 inches. These are perfect fish for fly fisherman to target, classic spot and stalk fishing.
Giant jack crevalle are following schooling reds. Yesterday and the day before we had jacks in the 20lb class, each one took nearly 30 minutes to land on 8lb test line.
There are loads of cobia cruising the flats right now. I have been seeing two to three per day, most of them over the legal limit of 33", our largest was nearly 35 lbs. Capt. Shawn's boat lost a 50 lb cobia a few days ago. Yesterday my guys where just 5 ft. short of hooking one in the 60 pound class, a true once in a
lifetime trophy. We don't see them on the flats that large very often. This is strictly sight fishing, and a good cast is usually a hook up with one of these majestic fish. Fly fisherman, if you guys are willing, your chances for a trophy cobia could not be any better.
The gator trout bite is starting to come on strong. Yesterday we had four over 20" while we were snook fishing. Capt. Shawn has also been pulling out some nice trout in some of his snook holes.
As for offshore fishing, I have not been out much because the flats fishing has been so good.
A couple of weeks ago I took a fly guy offshore, and we caught a few little tunny from 10 to 14 lbs. I saw a few schools of permit but couldn't connect.
I know some of you are waiting for the kings. They should be showing up any day now in good numbers, I will keep you posted.
Well, hope you enjoyed my report, don't miss out on these spectacular fall days. This is a great time of the year to enjoy our outdoors!
Captain Matt
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