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Tampa Bay - Saltwater
Capt. Matt Ercoli
January 19, 2001
Tampa Bay - Saltwater Fishing Report
Hooray! It seems as if winter has finally broken down here in the sunshine state. I smell spring in the air everyday as I venture out early in the morning. What a beautiful week for fishing, with midday temperatures in the middle 70's, could it be any nicer? We are expecting a small cold front this weekend but nothing severe, it shouldn't hurt the fishing too much. I've heard a rumor going around that the long term forecast for February and March is above average temperature. If that is the case hold on to your fishing rod with both hands because the fishing is going to be very good.
Well, it's been a fairly typical January week of fishing. I would have to say the best thing about this past week is the number of redfish starting to show up in much more reliable numbers from day to day. We've had a couple of days this past week where we boated better than 10 redfish. They are almost all slot fish from 18 to 27 inches and vary in size quite a bit. I've seen some larger reds but just haven't been able to connect. I hope this is a sign of good spring redfishing. Redfish tend to run in cycles from year to year. Last spring was my best ever for snook, but on the flip side very slow for reds. The spring before that was hard to choose what to fish for. The snook fishing was great but the redfishing was equally as good. Most of the reds were averaging 28 to 35 inches and 10 to 30 fish per day was the norm. One particular half day we had over 70 fish but only five or six were small enough to keep. We were on large schools continuously from February until June. So lets keep our fingers crossed for another late winter and spring like that.
I just got of the phone with my partner Capt. Shawn, he was out scouting from his tower today and also saw quite a lot of schooling reds, he and I both believe this is going to be a good year for reds in our area.
As far as other fishing goes, we have been catching quite a few trout, sheepshead, and still a few black drum.
There are plenty of nice keeper trout out there now, we had a few up to 23 inches this past week. Warming water should really put the keeper trout on the bite over the next couple of weeks. Most of the larger ones are running between 3 to 5 pounds, very consistent with more nice ones being caught than small ones.
The black drum are not the largest of their kind but average 6 to 8 pounds, a good fight on light tackle.
Well let's keep our fingers crossed that the groundhog doesn't see his shadow! February can offer some great fishing opportunities. My partner Capt. Shawn and I still have some days available, so if you're interested in a fishing trip drop an email or give us a call.
Have a great weekend!
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