Tampa Bay – Bradenton – Sarasota – Boca Grande

It doesn't get much better!

Report Date: March 2, 2008

I wouldn’t believe it if I didn’t see it myself!!! Just keep reading to find out what I’m talking about. I will tell you now, that we had a little cooler weather come in to the area last week and it slowed the fishing down maybe for a day. The cooler

weather brought a lot of wind with it as well. It was so windy that we didn’t even go fishing one day. The few days of cooler weather took the water temperature back down to around 60 degrees, but don’t worry, it will warm up pretty soon. The weather trend for the past few weeks has been beautiful and it definitely moves the water temperature back up to the 80’s. The higher water temperature is just one factor in kicking off springtime fishing. One of the nicest things about fishing this time of the year is that there isn’t many people on the water fishing, but that will change soon enough. Over the next few weeks, more and more people will be on the water fishing with snook season opening back up.

It’s unbelievable, but the silver kings are back! It’s a little early for the tarpon to be here because it is still a bit cool, but they are indeed back and they don’t seem to mind the cooler water at all. When the water temperature gets to the high 60’s or lower 70’s the tarpon come out to play. Like I said at the beginning of the report, I wouldn’t believe it if I didn’t see it myself and if I hadn’t already hooked over 10 fish. We had an awesome first day of 2008 tarpon fishing. The first day alone we hooked 3 fish that where over 200 lbs. That, my friends, is a huge fish. All of the other fish we hooked were roughly 125 lbs plus with most of the fish being in the 175lb range. I know it’s really hard to believe what I’m telling you, but it is true!!! Book a trip and come see for yourself. Most of the fish around this time of year are the bigger female fish. The season has definitely started off with a BANG.

The trout bite has remained good. I’ve had clients that want to keep a few fish almost every trip, and we have been able to do so with trout. We’ve been catching most of the trout on live bait, and the fish have been about 15 inches to 19 inches. Fifteen inches to nineteen inches is great size for a trout. It is a nice size to keep and to eat. We’ve caught a few fish that were 20 inches as well. The abundance in bait in the area is one of the reasons trout made such a quick comeback after the red tide plagued the area a couple of years ago.

The snook haven’t gotten any smaller by any means over the past

few weeks. The numbers of fish and the size of them have given us an insight that it is going to be a great year for snook fishing. It has been awesome to catch such great numbers of snook so early in the season. As you can see in the pictures, the size of the fish has been really awesome too. We’ve had a number of fish that have been 30 inches plus, which is a great snook. The biggest snook caught so far is 34 inches, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t hooked bigger fish. The reason the fish are so big is because that they know how to get off your line or break your line so that they continue to grow bigger. Because the snook is coming back in season we will be doing a lot more of this type fishing over the next few weeks.

The redfish bite is on! Many of the fish that we caught have been mixed in with the snook. The same thing

goes for all the fish in the areas where we have been catching the redfish. We’ve been catching a number of different kinds of fish. That is one of the great things about fishing in saltwater. Every time you throw a bait in the water, there is not telling what you might hook. We had a few redfish over the size limit last week with the biggest one being a bull red that was 32 inches. The other redfish we caught were in the slot being about 19 inches to 25 inches. If you’re looking for a good fish to bring home, a 19 inch to 25 inch redfish is the one. Please visit www.castawaychartersinc.com and book your trip today!

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