Manatee River, Tera Ceia Bay, Tampa Bay

July 25th, 2008

Tampa Bay redfish are getting bigger!

Fishing has certainly changed over the last few years. I sure am lucky that I get to spend so much time on the water to see the changes. Fishing always changes a bit with each new year, but it has done a whole heck of a lot of changing this year.

We have had a lot of fun over the past few weeks with some of the different types of fishing we’ve done and with the different ways that we’ve been catching fish! Despite all the changes, we have still caught some great fish. Not only the size of the fish has been great, but the amount of fish that we’ve caught has been awesome too.

Redfish continue to appear in many different areas. I’m not quiet sure where they have been hiding for the last two months, but they are back now and they are hungry. Over the past few weeks we’ve caught some great redfish. The numbers of fish we’re catching is awesome, but the size of the fish is even better. Take a look at the bull red in the picture. Man, what a fish this gentleman caught, and he caught it on 10 lb test. That morning we lost the first 4 to 5 fish that we hooked. The fish in the picture is the first fish that we managed to get back to the boat that day. It was about 36 inches long, but this was only one of the many great fish caught that day.

I can’t say that we boated a lot of tarpon last week, but it’s not because we haven’t been fishing for them. We have lost a lot of fish around the Skyway Bridge. Like I always say… you have to worry about hooking the fish before you can worry about losing it. Tarpon fishing has changed because the fish are steadily moving. Overall, we have been able to keep up with the fish and get them to bite.

We didn’t do a lot of fishing for snook last week so I don’t have any high numbers to report. However, the small amount of time we did spend fishing for snook produced a good result. Many snook are being caught around the beaches, but there are still fish in the Bay. The key is fishing on the right tide to get these fish to bite.

Capt. TJ Stewart
Castaway Charters, Inc.
5616 41 Ave. East
Bradenton, FL 34208
Phone: 941-737-5985
Email: CaptainTJStewart@yahoo.com
Website: http://castawaychartersinc.com/