Fishing Tampa's Flats and Bay

Posts Tagged ‘tarpon’

Its that time of year again. The Tarpon have shown up in good numbers in Tampa Bay.

It was this week I made my first trip of the year out to check it out for my self. My good friend Loren came along and we started our day early.

Our first stop was a small bridge to catch the beginning of the afternoon outgoing tide. I like to fish on the new and full moon tides as that is when the pass crabs begin flushing off the nearby flats and the Tarpon begin to get actively feeding.

We spent some time getting a few pin fish and fished some nearby structure catching a few grouper. Yes there is bi-catch when Tarpon fishing and it is not uncommon to hook a grouper or three.

The tide really started moving so we spent some more time gathering up pass crabs as these are the bait of choice. We then headed to the Sunshine Skyway bridge to begin making our drifts.

We ended our day hooking up on three Tarpon in the 100lb class but all three were lost to thrown hooks . That’s part of Tarpon fishing.

I was not disappointed at the results as all trips out are a learning experience.

I will be out again so keep checking the reports.

If you would like to book a Tarpon trip give me a call and we will set it up for some of the good tides.

Thanks for reading

Capt. Steve

I know according to the calendar the first day of spring was March 20,but according to my wife it was April 1st. That date is the first time since I can remember that she has asked me to go fishing. You see my wife hates the cold. If it drops below 70 degrees that is a freeze to her. Well our temps are now rising into the 80’s and she is ready and so the fish should be also.

My last trip out was a scouting mission. I have a Redfish tournament to fish a week from now so Redfish have been on my mind. I found some nice fish but not in the quantities I would like. Of course I did not make to far of a run from the tournament launch site so I did limit myself a bit. Not to worry my partner will also be out this coming week looking. We have a huge school we can fish tournament day we just like to have more than one option.

On our scouting mission I also found some good numbers of snook. This was an exciting thing to see as our snook suffered a big hit during this past winters freezing temps.

Snook

The big Black Drum I reported on a couple of weeks ago are also still in the area. I will be taking my wife this weekend for her chance to land one.

Big Black Drum

I have had several other captains give me some good reports of  Spanish Mackerel showing up. One of my sources told me his clients put six in the box and they were fishing in the very north end of Tampa Bay. This kind of news really gets me fired up!

Grouper season just opened up and on the first day a good friend of mine made it a point to get out and get a couple for dinner in the shallow waters of the bay.

Tarpon have been sighted already. I am really liking this! If you have never done battle with the Silver King you may want to think about booking a Tarpon Charter.

Spring is here according to my wife and the fish. So get out and get after them. I know I will.

Gag Grouper

Mackerel

Thanks for stopping by and keep checking back as I keep my reports up to date.

Capt. Steve Betz