Tampa Bay Memorial Day Fishing Report
Hi everyone, so sorry it's been a while since I gave an updated fishing report. I am just so busy during Tarpon season it's just hard to find the time to sit down and write a report. It's pretty much eat, sleep and fish this time of year for me and I barely have enough time for the eat and sleep part. I started fishing Tarpon right at the first week of May as I always do. It started out pretty good but then we had a few late cool snaps that slowed us a bit. A few days we had to pull out all the stops to hookup a few fish. The first few weeks just had a lot of inconsistencies to them. One day I would hook up 8 or 10 fish the next I would have to struggle for just a couple. Its tuff when we have hard days like that but honesty I enjoy the really hard days. It makes me feel really good after a long struggling day when my client sinks the hook in that first fish, knowing there is only a very small percentage of charters that could pull off the quest on that given day.
This past week has been solid I have had some really good days. Today we landed 4 Tarpon, the largest was a real monster, well over 200 pounds, and so far my largest fish of the year. I just got done looking at his picture on my twitter account. It really was a nice big one. We started off with a 75 pounder, then a 100, then a 130 class, then the big boy. Check out my twitter if you want to see him, https://twitter.com/CaptMattErcoli . The picture isn't the best because I could only get his head out of the water but it's easy to see he is exceptional.
I have really been doing nothing but Tarpon and it will stay that way I think until at least the middle of July, maybe even closer to the end of July. Water temperatures are staying cool so late this year. We have had years in the past where Tarpon were solid until the 4th week of July.
Tarpon fishing is the most tiring, challenging, technical fishing I do. I stay so focused all day long that the hours seem to fly by like minutes. It's also the most exciting and by far my favorite fish to target. I can't wait till tomorrow morning.
Until next time, enjoy yourself on the water and if you want to do battle with one of the most exciting fish in the world I still have very few Tarpon days available.
Capt. Matt Ercoli
941-447-9888
www.CaptainMatt.com
