Tampa Bay - Saltwater

Capt. Matt Ercoli
July 30, 2003
Tampa Bay - Saltwater Fishing Report

Well the heat has certainly turned on. This past week fishing seems to have gotten progressively better, since that tremendous amount of rain we had three weeks ago which put a lull in our fishing. The past couple of weeks I’ve spent most of my time catching redfish and snook on the flats. Most of the snook are in the 22 to 32 inch range. Redfishing is coming on strong and should only get better from here until late October. I have been catching nice keeper redfish on nearly every trip in the 22 to 26 inch class. The better days we are catching as many as 20 per trip.

Tarpon fishing is winding down, although we still have some fish on the beach.

Offshore fishing has been decent for mackerel and goliath grouper. We are also catching a few little-tunny, cobia and permit on our offshore outings.

I’m looking for August to be a stronger month than the last, particularly because it seems that the bait has spawned already and the redfish are showing in really strong numbers, a little earlier than usual.

I do have some availability in the month of August if you are interested in some of the best flats fishing of the year for redfish. The little tunny should be showing strong shortly for you offshore fly fisherman as well. I hope you have enjoyed the report,

Good-luck fishing!

Capt Matt Ercoli

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