Planning a fishing trip to the Tampa Bay area? Well, here’s what you need to know. My inshore planner for 2011 will let you know what you can catch at what time of year, where we’ll likely be meeting for your trip and where you can stay if you’re in from out of town.
January
What’s Biting: Our main target is Speckled Sea Trout but we also get into redfish and sheephead.
Where: From New Port Richey and Tarpon Springs.
Where to stay: coming soon
Summery: January is a great time for speckled trout. The cooler months of the year are when our larger fish move in in droves. It’s not unusual to have fish up to 6lbs come in the boat. Redfish are also around and getting into fish up to 8lbs is not unusual.
February
What’s Biting: Again, February is awesome for trout fishing. If the weather warms compared to January, the redfishing gets even better.
Where: New Port Richey, Tarpon Springs and Clearwater (on occasion)
Where to Stay: coming soon
Summery: Trout fishing is at it’s best and redfishing continues to get better. If you absolutely must keep trout for dinner, I’ll have to pick you up in Clearwater as trout season is closed in Tarpon Springs and New Port Richey during February.
March
What’s Biting: Our main targets are Redfish and trout. The redfish bite is nearing it’s best of the year and the trout bite should be going really well also.
Where: New Port Richey, Tarpon Springs and occasionally St. Petersburg
Where to Stay: coming soon
Summery: The weather in March becomes more mild and predictable and the fishing is great. Redfish begin to school up in great numbers and the trout are huge. The redfish also seem to be on the larger side during these months and it;s not unusual to get fish up to 15lbs.
April
What’s Biting: Our main targets are redfish and trout. Spanish Mackerel, sharks and several other species begin to arrive and play with is in March as well.
Where: New Port Richey, Tarpon Springs and St. Petersburg
Where to Stay: coming soon
Summery: April is one of the best months of the year to target redfish. They school up in large numbers and the fish tend to be on the larger size this time of year. Trout are still going strong and we can also begin targeting other fish such as spanish mackerel and sharks.
May – July
What’s Biting: Tarpon, tarpon, tarpon…. and there’s also redfish, spanish mackerel, sharks, kingfish and more.
Where: St. Petersburg
Where to Stay: coming soon
Summery: This is tarpon Season. There are tons of things to fish for but, we try to stay focused on Tarpon because this is the only time of year that we have them around to fish for. Tarpon range in side from 40lbs to 200+lbs. These are fish that you’ll remember for the rest of your life.
August – September
What’s Biting: Tarpon, mangrove snapper, spanish mackerel and others.
Where: St. Petersburg, Tarpon Springs and New Port Richey
Where to Stay: coming soon
Summery: August and September are still good months to target tarpon but the dates we choose to chase them are more tide dependent. Spanish Mackerel are ruling Tampa Bay at this point and catching a ton of these drag screamers is just about a guarantee on an incoming tide. This is the best time of year to catch a mixed bag of mackerel, trout, snapper, bluefish and sharks.
October – December
What’s Biting: Redfish, trout, snook and spanish mackerel
Where: New Port Richey, Tarpon Springs and on occasion St. Petersburg
Where to Stay: coming soon
Summery: Until the weather begins to cool, spanish mackerel will still be a huge hit. once the weather starts to cool off, the redfish and trout bite will turn on.