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Tampa Bay - Saltwater
Capt. Matt Ercoli
October 19, 2001
Tampa Bay - Saltwater Fishing Report
I wish every week was a spitting image of this past one. Absolutely beautiful weather, the fish are biting with few people on the water. I have to say, hands down, this is my favorite time of the year to fish. Yes the fishing as a whole is better in the spring and temperatures are similar, but the tranquility is totally opposite. I would have to say there is 1/3 the amount of boat traffic this time of year. The locals are out hunting and our snowbirds have not arrived yet. Yes it is official, this is my favorite time of the year to fish. I have been ask that question so many times by so many people and always come up with this same answer. The only thing we aren?t catching this time of year is tarpon. Although I love to fish for them it?s a hard trade off for the perfect air temperature, low humidity, and most importantly much less traffic by passing boats.
Well I need to start by saying redfish! It has really turned out to be a great fall for redfish and this past week was no exception. We caught nice reds everyday in the 25 to 26 inch class and a few over thirty inches. Our best day we boated more than twenty. They are in shallow water and because of low boat traffic have been less leary and very willing to eat.
Snook are also tops on the list, as they should be when the water temperature drops into the mid 70s on the flats. Right now 20 snook per day is the norm and we have had a few days where we boated nearly 30. Most of the fish are short of the slot limit but a 22 to 25 inch snook can really pull on light tackle. We have had a few keepers in the 28 to 30 inch class and I expect snook of this size to start picking up over the next couple of weeks. We did manage to land one true trophy last Thursday that measured a full 40 inches and weighted between 22 and 24 pounds. We had a few others break-off that size, so I hope to bag a few more of these monsters over the up coming weeks.
I have hooked several nice cobia over the past couple of weeks, most of the fish are 25 to 60 pound fish, so if you get one it?s a big one. Unfortunately these big ones are good at severing the line, but I guess that?s why they call it fishing.
Trout and flouder fishing has picked up too, we are getting keepers of each species each day. This will help add some fillets to the bag if you would like to take some fish home.
So if you?re planning a fishing trip, and like most light tackle fisherman you like numbers, now is the time you can bet on catching good numbers of snook and redfish. As for you fly fisherman, snook are prime for the taking in shallow water with a 7 or 8 weight fly rod.
Hope you have enjoyed my report, good luck fishing and I look forward to the opportunity to share a day on the water with you.
Capt. Matt Ercoli
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