
- Fishing Report -
Capt. Matt Ercoli
&
Capt. Shawn Crawford
Tampa Bay
to Sarasota, FLORIDA
Hello fellow fisherman! How is the fishing? Snook,
Snook, Snook has basically been the name of the game since my last fishing
report. I can honestly say it can't get any better than this as far as
numbers go. The snook began to creep out on the flats two weeks ago as
water temperatures began to rise into the low 70s, prime for early season
snook. The snook fishing since then has taken off and continually gotten
better. My slowest day in the last week and a half on live bait was 25
snook, average day has been around 35. I ran a full day 3days ago in witch
we caught over 60 snook. I didn't think I would be topping that number
anytime soon until yesterday. Despite weak tides, the fishing was absolutely
unbelievable, we broke 100 snook before the day had ended and left them
biting. The largest fish of the day was 33 inches and the average fish
was between 22 and 27". This is as good as it gets and I know for
a fact to expect nothing less for the month of March.
Snook are not the only fish out there, though it has been my primary target. We have been catching numerous trout over 20" and plenty of slot redfish. It shouldn't be long before I start to target the giant bull reds. I have a couple of large schools located but they are not quite feeding consistently enough for us to bother with them, especially when the snook are biting like they are.
Large cobia are also starting to show up on the flats, I'm sure we will put several 20 to 40 pounders in the boat through out the month of March, traditionally the best month of the year for them.
Fly fisherman- these next couple of months are going to be your best bet for snook on the fly. Don't delay, average snook catches on the fly this time of year is between 6 to 10 a day and I'm sure we will have a few that approaches 20.
Tarpon fisherman should book your charters now if you desire a day on the water. April will be our best month for bridge fishing, one of the most productive ways to land a giant tarpon. May and June are the prime months for traditional beach sight-fishing, which is a great time for the fly purest and light tackle guys alike.
I hope you have enjoyed our fishing report and forecast, give us a call so we can talk fishing. Now I need to go catch bait for this afternoon.
See you on the water!
Captains Matt and Shawn
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Contact Capt. Matt Ercoli (800-521-2872)
or Capt. Shawn Crawford (888-647-2381)
or for more information visit the Fishing
Team at www.fishingteam.com
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