The wind sure has been blowing hard, but it hasn't kept us off the water! It certainly has made a few of our trips a bit bumpy though. One of the great things about fishing in the Tampa Bay area is that there are always places to go to get out of the wind where you can still fish. Occasionally, the wind helps us fish because when there is not a breeze fishing can be really tough. When the water is slick calm with no ripples, it can be tougher than a windy day because the fish are able to hear the boat moving around, which spooks them a lot of times.
We haven't had much luck with tarpon lately, but that is probably because we haven't been able to fish for them much. However, we were able to tarpon fish for a short while last week, but the wind was blowing and the water was pretty rough. The weather might have pushed the tarpon out of the Bay because we didn't have any luck. We did find a bunch of tarpon up in the river and got a few bites, but we didn't catch any of them. Most of the fish in the river are in the 20lb to 50lb size range. Although we didn't catch any tarpon last week, it was still fun watching these great fish roll around the boat. Over the next couple of weeks, the fish that are out in the Bay should come back in and the fall tarpon bite should be great.
Due to the north wind, the water temperature has dropped down to 84 degrees to 85 degrees from 89 degrees to 90 degrees. The decrease in water temperature has caused fish to move around. For example, snook have been showing up in some of their fall spots and many of the bigger fish have started to move in with the smaller ones. Because of this, we have had some great snook fishing over the past week, and it should just keep getting better. During the fall, we usually catch bigger snook.
Redfish, much like the snook, are doing a lot of moving around. It is rough in most of the areas where the bigger schools of redfish are, but we have still managed to catch redfish every trip. Many redfish are around so it appears that it is going to be an awesome fall season much like the last couple of years. Most of the redfish that we have been catching in the big schools have been over-sized fish, but still a lot of fun to catch.
Snapper, shark, trout, and mackerel fishing have been great. The snapper have been going crazy, and it is a good thing when you want to keep fish. Many of the snapper we have caught have been good size, ranging from 12 inches to18 inches. The trout we caught this week were a bit smaller than what we have been catching in the past few weeks, with most of them not reaching the limit of 15 inches. Some really great sized fish are usually mixed in with the smaller fish. While fishing for trout, we have also caught mackerel, sharks, and all kinds of other fish for some great action. Please visit www.castawaychartersinc.com and book your fall trip today!