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Tampa Bay May 1 Fishing Report

We just had one great week of fishing this past week, inshore and offshore I mixed it up about 50/50.  We caught fish everywhere and every stop and a lot of them. We are in & out of summer time patterns now with a light wind out of the East, calm in the afternoon and then a sea breeze.  I switch over to Tarpon this week and that will make up about 95 percent of my trips for the next 3 months.   I will be leaving some awesome inshore and offshore fishing in search of Tarpon, but that’s ok, Tarpon are the most exciting thing in the world to catch as far as I am concerned and my favorite fish to catch.

Inshore the Snook and Redfish are on fire.  On the days we targeted Snook we have been averaging 40 to 50 a day with Reds mixed in.  We had a lot of smaller Snook, but a few up to 30 inches.  The days we targeted Redfish we killed them.  Yesterday we caught 60 and with a few Snook mixed in and never pulled the anchor once.  The Reds were between 23 and 30 inches, probably more than half where between 26 and 30 inches.  We wore out some arms yesterday.

Tampa bay fishing charter report at www.captainmatt.com

Trout fishing has been ok the few times I have targeted them, I had one day last week where we caught a pile of 18 to 23 inchers.

The offshore fishing has been exciting.  Kingfish are still thick & most are in the 10 to 25 pound class with a few larger.  The False Albacore and monster Jacks are mixed in for an added bonus.  We had some Jacks over 20 pounds, talk about a battle.  The Gag Grouper fishing is better than I have ever seen it and we have been catching some nice keeper Reds.   We also caught 3 big Goliath Grouper last week, a 150 pounder, a 200 and a 300 pounder.  Man did that 300 pound Grouper pull; I thought he was going to snap the butt of the rod taking the reel and everything with him.

May 1^st marks the beginning of Tarpon season for me. So I will be out there every day from this point on Tarpon fishing.  Look for next week’s Tarpon report.

I hope you have enjoyed the report.  Let me know if you want to get out there and catch a Tarpon, my associates and I have a few dates still open.  

Capt. Matt

941-447-9888

Tampa bay fishing report at www.captainmatt.com