Tampa Fishing Charters Report:
There has been a lot going on lately, so I decided to take some time off and fish with some really good friends. Started off last week by going to Boca Grande to do a little tarpon fishing with Scott Koons and Chris Cupoli. We decided during the drive down that we should probably do some fishing for snook and redfish. We got a lot of reports that bait was not easy there, so we went to a local flat that some friends told me about and ended up getting 300+ nice greenbacks. After getting bait, we figured we would go to Bull Bay and get some snook. Caught a bunch of snook and topped it off with a 28 incher. Hit a few other spots and basically struck out.
By then the tide was dropping and we knew we needed to dip crabs so we could go tarpon fishing the next morning. The crabs were not flushing out yet, so back to another spot not too far from the pass to catch some more snook. To our surprise, we found a nice school and redfish. Ended up catching approximately 35 reds from 26-32”. It was absolutely awesome to sight cast at these fish. Went and caught our crabs after that, but no tarpon.
Day two started off with getting some more greenbacks and then to the beach looking for tarpon. Still no luck with the poons so lunch and Cabbage Key and then back to our school or redfish. Ended up with some more really nice reds. Probably had too much fun that day, so we decided to skip the pass that evening. Big mistake, because apparently the tarpon bite was awesome. Ended up hitting a couple dock lights on the way home and caught some nice snook and trout. One dock we went by actually had a Goliath Grouper that we probably 300 lbs. Watched and took videos of him for about 15 minutes. I have never seen and fish that big under a dock at night.
Day three, our friend Chris had to leave early to go on a cruise. My cousin Carl decided to show up in the morning and fish with us. Good decision. Carl ended up catching snook and redfish in the early afternoon hours, then he caught a 150+ lb tarpon during the crab flush, and got his trout dock fishing on the way back to the motel. He got the big slam: Snook, Redfish, Trout and Tarpon all in one day. Good job.
Had to come home from Boca Grande after that and then traveled to Anna Maria Island to fish with more good friends. Got bait the next morning with them and hit some rock piles way south of Anna Maria. Ended up catching over 60 snook and more than a dozen trout (with one being just over 25”).
Needless to say, it was a great 5 days off. Now back to charter fishing and a new local report to follow soon. Tight lines.
Big Boca Grande Red
To book your Tampa Bay fishing charters, call or text me at 813-494-2048 or email me at jay@StealthFishingCharters.com