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Tampa Bay - Saltwater
Capt. Matt Ercoli
May 6, 2007
Tampa Bay - Saltwater Fishing Report
What’s biting these days? or what’s not biting may be a better question? It’s that time when everything explodes on the fishing scene. The water temps have suddenly risen and with that new schools of fish have started moving in. The water temps are approaching 80 and you know what that means. Tarpon and lots of them, it’s time, and they we are right on course for the southern migration to hit Tampa bay. I just started fishing them yesterday, we jumped four and landed one and I can assure you it will do nothing but get better from here on out. My boat is tarpon ready, last weekend I did my annual tarpon fishing prep to my boat. This year I have over 6 hp of trolling motor and enough battery juice to keep them running all day, so basically we will have more silent approaches, more opportunities, and more silver kings on the line. Last year we averaged 5 to 7 hookups per day. On the better days we had over 10 and as many as 15. Let’s see if we can bust the averages this year. May thru July is my favorite time of year. I spend most of it tarpon fishing. I live to wake up for the thrill of the hunt and the first connection each day. Most of our tarpon average 75 to 130lbs but each and every year we put some 200 pounders into the air.
Tarpon will make up the bulk of my fishing over the next three months because it’s my specialty, but they are not the only fish out there biting. The flats fishing for snook and trout is equally as good, we’ve had a lot of snook this week and they will continue to bite well as we come into the spawning season. Trout has been the real blessing all week, they are biting as fast as you can pull them in, with lots of nice keepers to boot. This is so nice to see after the poor trout fishing caused by red tide a few years back. Well the trout are back and nearly as good as ever, maybe not as many real monsters but they are fast growers and it won't take long to be back where they use to be. Redfish is still decent, not quite as good as they were a month ago, but guess something needs to slow down a little.
The offshore fishing has also suddenly picked up. We haven’t had much of a kingfish run this year but everything else is biting out there. Lots of Spanish mackerel, little tunny, grouper, and yes the permit have just recently showed as well and some real nice ones up to 25 pounds. The actions hot now for light, heavy or fly tackle fisherman alike. If there is a time to go for explosive action it’s right now.
Well that’s all for now, if you would like to get a tarpon let me know soon, I have just a few days left. I wish everyone good luck and tight lines.
Capt. Matt 1-800-521-2872
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