My absolute favorite fish to catch. They grow to enormous proportions and are considered one of the top gamefish in the world. We have resident tarpon in Tampa Bay but the real show gets going mid-April through the end of the summer when the migratory fish arrive. They have large eyes and scales with an upturned mouth that a tarpon uses to quickly inhale their prey. Most fish are in the 60-120 pound class but we routinely deal with larger fish. The largest tarpon we have landed was approximately 175 pounds. We fish for tarpon on the beaches, in the passes, and around bridges. Tarpon eat pretty much anything they can catch and we try to have a variety of baits with us when targeting them. It amazes me that they are so big and are not eating every second of the day. We will have trips where we are surrounded by hundreds of tarpon and they refuse to eat any presentation, and other days absolute pandemonium ensues!! To me, all other fish are for practice until the tarpon get active.

One of the most sought-after fish in the bay! They are coppery red to bronze in color and usually have spots on their tails as a “fake” eyes. They school up at certain times of the year and when we find a school, it can be non-stop action with all rods in the water doubled over at the same time. We catch redfish by live-chumming, fishing dead baits, and with artificial lures. Redfish are mostly caught on the shallow grass flats and along mangrove shorelines.

Snook are among the most popular game fish in the bay. They are aggressive biters and once hooked they provide terrific fights complete with jumps, hard runs, and routinely head for cover trying to break you off. We catch snook by live-chumming, fishing dead baits and with artificial lures. Snook are caught on the shallow grass flats, along mangrove shorelines, along docks, bridges, and on the beach. For a very visual experience, try a night trip where we target the snook on dock lights, it is intense!

Tampa Bay is also loaded with Gag Grouper. These are outstanding to eat, are extremely strong and when hooked head straight towards cover in an attempt to break off. You have to be quick and apply steady pressure to land this most sought-after fish. They can be very aggressive at times but also be very sluggish. Live bait tends to get the most action, but they will also hit cut bait. While we can catch them year-round but there are closed seasons for Gags and we mainly target them June through December.

Another great fish for the table. This prehistoric looking fish is usually found around floating structure (crab pot buoys). When targeting tripletail, we run from the tower driving past all floating objects we can find, the fish usually “show” pretty well when they are hanging next to a crab pot buoy. Once we see one, we spin around and sight cast to the fish. It is great fun and they are usually very aggressive. They have oversized anal and caudal fins which look like 2 extra tails, thus the name tripletail!

Hogfish: Caught right on the bottom. These fish have very large mouths that they use to forage in the sand just offshore. We use live and dead shrimp and other crustaceans to target the hogfish. It is a very specialized technique to catch them and they pull straight down once hooked and do not give up until in the net. They are absolutely delicious with super clear/white filets.

Mangrove Snapper: Tampa Bay is loaded with mangrove snapper. They are outstanding to eat and are usually very aggressive feeders. They relate to structure and are hard fighters. We usually catch them on the bottom but under the right conditions we can chum them up behind the boat and it becomes a very fast paced and hectic bite! We have caught them up to 20” in the bay which is a quality one that goes right into the cooler!! They feed on live bait, shrimp, and cut bait.

Seatrout: Seatrout are frequently caught in the same areas as snook and redfish, but do tend to hang in the deeper sections of a flat. They can be aggressive and make jarring strikes of topwater lures and free-lined live bait. They will jump and thrash wildly when hooked. “Gator” trout are generally considered to be 22” or more and we frequently run into them. They are shiny gray to silver to copper in color with small spots and usually have two fang teeth that they use to grab their prey.