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Tampa Bay July 1 Fishing Report

Hello from Anna Maria everyone.  Rain has run me off the water today so I finally got a chance to do a fishing report.  As always at this time of year most of my fishing reports are made up of mostly Tarpon, because for the most part it’s all I fish for.   Up until the last few days Tarpon fishing has been very good.  I say that because there are a lot of fish and the way they are moving make for perfect classic sight fishing, which is my very favorite way to Tarpon fish.  The last couple of days we had some rough water and that has made it very challenging. I did Tarpon fish in the high seas yesterday and did still manage to hook a few and miss several other.  Despite the extreme conditions we did quite well which is a testament for how many Tarpon are here.  As soon as the wind lays down in a day or two I should be back to business as usual as far as Tarpon are concerned.

Tampa bay fishing charters report at www.captainmatt.com

Before the blow we were averaging between 10 and 12 hook ups per day and landing 2 or 3.  There has been a lot of big fish around lately, pretty much every day we have been hooking fish over 140 pounds and larger.  I had one a couple of weeks ago that was one of the largest I have ever landed.  That Tarpon must have been well over 220 maybe pushing 250.  It was tremendous; I should have taken a girth measurement.   We had one fish we tagged with a satellite tracking beacon with the research boat that weighted 135.  That big fish we caught a few weeks before looked like he could have eaten that 135 pound Tarpon that we did actually take measurements to calculate its weight for research.

The Tarpon fishing looks like it is going to be real strong till about the end of July.  I suspect most of the fish will leave on that full moon toward the end of July to spawn.  Up until then we should have excellent fishing for them.  There is a ton of Tarpon out there and by the patterns they are running it looks like we should have a long season.

As for the other species I can only tell what others have been catching since I have been Tarpon fishing each and every day.   Offshore I hear the Red Grouper have been on fire.  There has been a lot of Cobia around and plenty of Mangrove Snapper.

Inshore the Snook fishing has been strong as it is in general this time of year.  The Red fishing has been pretty good.  Trout fishing has been ok and if you work at it there are plenty of keepers.  I have a few inshore trips planned this week so I will have a little more insight on how inshore fishing is doing. But until then it’s just more Tarpon for me until the last of the migration has ended.

I hope you guys have enjoyed my report.  Until next time keep your lines tight. 

Capt. Matt

941-447-9888

www.captainmatt.com