Tampa Bay Action!
Capt. TJ Stewart
April 6, 2009
Tampa Bay - Saltwater Fishing Report
The wind is gusting in Tampa Bay! Over the past couple of weeks a few fronts have come through the area making the water a bit rough, but they haven't affected the fish. Fishing has been awesome.
The redfish have been rowdy! On numerous occasions it has seemed as if redfish were trying to rip the fishing rod out of our hands. This has mostly happened while trying to reel the bait in to reset the line. Before we were able to get the line reset, a redfish would jump out of the water and grab the bait. We couldn't reel fast enough. There have been many times recently where we've had three to four fish hooked at once. We've come to expect this type of behavior from redfish during the summer, but it is a surprise to see them like that this time of year. If this behavior is any inclination of what the redfishing is going to be like this summer, it is going to be unforgettable.
The snook have been just as rowdy as the redfish lately. The same as the redfish, there were a few times where we had three to four snook on at once. Having that many fish on at once can get a bit crazy at times, but that is what fishing is all about. We caught some great size snook last week. The fish were mostly 30 inches to 34 inches, with a number of them at the top of the limit. Over the next few weeks, more and more snook should show up, but they are going to be moving around a lot. One thing is for sure, there is a good snook bite some where. The limits on these great fish have done great things to the numbers of fish that are around. We catch a number of fish that are just under the limit being 25 inches to 27 ˝ inches. Although fish in that range are not keeper fish, they sure are fun to catch on light tackle.
Trout have been hit or miss lately. However, we did manage to catch a number of nice fish last week even though we didn't really put in a lot of time fishing for them. We've caught a lot of bigger trout while fishing for redfish or snook. You think you just have another nice snook or maybe a good redfish on the line when a big trout comes out of the water shaking his head. As you can see from the attached picture, this happened this past week.
Where are the tarpon? That seems to be the million dollar question. The tarpon are usually here this time of year, but for some unknown reason, they are running late. Although there are a few fish around, we don't know that we've definitely had one hooked yet. It is hard to tell that a tarpon is on your line until you actually see the 6 foot long fish jumping out of the water, trying to throw the hook from his mouth. Any day now we should be shouting "fish on" with a tarpon on the end of the line. Please visit www.castawaychartersinc.com and book your trip today!
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