Tampa Bay Fishing, Fishing The Flats and Offshore

4/29/10

Hello From Anna Maria

Tarpon Season is right around the corner. Soon most of my day will be spent high above the water in my tower sight casting to Tarpon. I can’t wait, Tarpon season is my favorite time of year. This year will be especially exciting for me. I have a new proto-type trolling motor system that will allow me to chase the tarpon long, faster and most importantly more reliable than ever. I know to most people that may not sound very exciting, but to a guy that make his living hooking up tarpon everyday it’s really exciting. The migration is making its way up the coast and I’m starting to see a lot of Tarpon scattered around while fishing for other fish. We are only a few days away from full blow Tarpon season. We fished some resident fish one day last week and hooked 4 between 60 and 150 pounds.

The Flats action is phenomenal right now. We are slaying the Redfish. Some days catching as many as 40 in a day from 25 to 34 inches. The Trout fishing is the best it has been in years. It only takes an hour or two to get a limit and there are a lot of nice ones as large as 26 inches. Some spots we are actually having trouble catching small enough Reds and Trout to keep, a good problem to have when action is what you are after. We are also seeing more and more Snook all the time. Although I have not been targeting them we have been getting a few mixed in with the other fish.

Offshore fishing is also very hot right now. The Kingfish have hit in full force. Some of the better days they have been almost as fast as you can get a bait in the water. A lot of the Kings are in that 10 to 20 pound class. The bigger ones are over 30 pounds. Tons of Grouper within ten miles and plenty of them are keeper size. I have had no problem finding plenty of Permit and Cobia on the slick calm days. I still have a few Tarpon dates available; let me know soon if you want to do battle with a giant Tarpon. The last two years I have been 100% on hookups. In the last 10 years probably 98%. An average day is 5 to 10 hooked, slow day 2 to 4 and a good day 15 to 20. Landing them, well that is up to you and the Tarpon. I usually say about 1 out of 3 to 4 but some days we hook 4 or 5 and land them all and I have even had days you hook 10 and land none. Good news is you always get some high flying leaps along with screaming drags.

Well that’s what we have going on as of right now. Here is a picture from today’s charter.

Capt. Matt Ercoli

Cell 941-447-9888
www.captainmatt.com
www.tarponfish.com