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Tampa Bay April 29 Fishing Report

It’s almost that time everyone!  Peak Tarpon season is right around the corner.   I will be adding the extra 10 horsepower of trolling motors to my boat at the end of the week so that I am ready to chase Tarpon every day until the middle of July.  I can’t wait; it’s my favorite time of year.   I have already started fishing them a little bit, catching a few resident fish in the morning before my inshore charters.  Next week I will switch over to pretty much nothing but Tarpon.

The past week had some very exciting action.  I spent half of my time offshore.  The Kingfish are on fire and have been my primary target out in the deep.  We had some tremendous days out there with Kings leaping everywhere and hookups fast as you can get bait in the water.  We also had a lot of big fish.  Most days 15 to 30 pounders where average with several fish over 30 pounds.  I’m positive a few of the giants we lost where pushing 40 pounds.

The Grouper and Mangrove Snapper fishing have also been good and we have been catching quite a few while targeting Kings.  With Gag Grouper season poised to open the first of May there couldn’t be a better time to head offshore.

Inshore fishing has also been very good as it has been all spring.  The Snook fishing has been very good.  It’s nothing to catch 50 Snook per day without even trying; it’s just the norm these days.  Redfishing has also been good, there are nice schools of fish scattered throughout the bay and catching nice keepers has been pretty easy most every day.  The Trout fishing has also been strong.  I haven’t been targeting them much because most of my customers have wanted Snook and Redfish on my inshore trips lately, but we have been catching plenty of larger Trout mixed in with the Snook and Reds.

I hope you have enjoyed my report.  I know I don’t write them enough this time of year because I am just so busy it’s hard to find the time. You can go to my live daily fishing report feed on Twitter at https://twitter.com/CaptMattErcoli

I still have a few Tarpon dates during peak season; if anyone is interested let me know.

Capt. Matt Ercoli

Tampa bay fishing report at www.CaptainMatt.com

941-447-9888