Tampa Bay Tarpon going crazy!

Tampa Bay Tarpon going crazy!

Report Date: October 2, 2008

It was a bit windy last week so we mostly fished in the mangroves. When the wind is blowing, it is best to find a place to get out of it. Fish move around frequently when it is windy. .For example, if the wind is blowing to the North one day then the South the next day, the fish will move from one side of an island to the other. Last week we had to deal with the fish moving around quite a bit. What the fish are doing on one side of the island could be completely different than what they are doing on the other side of the island. Personally, I have always had much better luck catching snook, redfish, and other species of fish in an area that they were new to. When fish stay in one spot for any length of time they get used to how people fish for them and they usually don’t feed as good.

Snook fishing and redfishing were great last week. Most of the

snook and redfish we caught were mixed in with each other. Once the fish are chummed up they start going crazy and other fish join them to see what is going on. Many of the redfish we caught last week were in the slot limit of 18 inches to 27 inches, and many of the fish were at the top of that limit. The snook we caught were all a great size, but they didn’t all fall in the slot limit; however, the snook limit is a bit harder to hit than the redfish limit. The snook have to be 28 inches to 33 inches. A 28 inch to 33 inch snook is a great snook. Most of the fish that we caught were right around that size. Snook are a lot of fun to catch. Once they are hooked, they usually come up out of the water and jump in an attempt to shake the hook. On the other hand, redfish don’t jump out of the water right out of the gate, but instead usually pull a little harder than snook do.

Although we didn’t do a lot of tarpon fishing last week, we did do some and it was great. Most of the fish we caught were 50 lbs to100 lbs; however we

did catch a few that were larger. We managed to hook a tarpon last week that was over 150 lbs, but it threw the hook before we got to fight it for very long. With it now being fall, bigger tarpon should begin to show up. Don’t get me wrong though; there is nothing wrong with catching a 50 lb tarpon. It is still a lot of work and fun to catch a 50 lb tarpon. Fall has also brought back another fish; kingfish have shown up just off the beaches.

We have

been fishing a couple of tournaments lately and have had great results. We won the Extreme Redfish Series that we have been fishing in for months. We won first place three times, second place one time, and fourth place one time to win the entire series. We also fished in the Bradenton HBA tournament and won first place in the redfish and flounder divisions. We had a great time catching some great fish. Please visit www.castawaychartersinc.com and book your trip today….fishing has been awesome!

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