So you have catching a tarpon on your bucket list huh? Well, a Tampa Bay tarpon fishing charter is your best bet and in this post I’ll tell you the best dates for you to get your chance at catching a Tampa Bay tarpon and I will also tell you why these dates are so special.

There are other things to fish for May-July but with Tarpon being in full swing, why fish for anything else!?!? We’re talking about 60-200lbs of pure adrenaline rush hooked at the end of your line! Reel smoking runs, death defying leaps and brute strength! Catching a tarpon is truly a catch of a lifetime! If I end up with ANY days open in May, June or July, you can bet you’ll find me tarpon fishing on my day off. That’s how addicted I am to it. You don’t want to miss out on this!

Don’t wait to book you trip! You might think I’m blowing smoke but it’s true. Over 12 people missed out on trips in March and April because they waited to book their trip inside of a week from the date they wanted to go and I was already booked. As soon as you know you want to catch a tarpon, book it. Make sure you get the best dates. Click here to reserve your charter ONLINE RESERVATIONS

KEEP READING TO SEE WHICH DATES HAVE THE BEST TIDES FOR TARPON IN MAY,  JUNE and JULY!

Tampa Bay has thousands of resident tarpon that stay here year round but we also have a huge influx of large migratory tarpon that visit Tampa Bay every year, usually starting in late April or early May. These migratory fish will mingle with our resident fish throughout the Tampa Bay area but a large majority of the tarpon will congregate near the mouth of Tampa Bay including near the Sunshine Skyway Bridge and Egmont Key.

We can catch tarpon pretty regularly from May through September but the best months are May, June and July. And we can get even more specific than that. In Tampa Bay we have what is called a “Hill Tide” twice a month. These hill tides are tides in which we only have one incoming tide and one outgoing tide each day and they last for about 5 days each time they occur.

What’s so special about a hill tide? Well, the outgoing tide on a hill tide day in the Tampa Bay area is very strong. So strong that the crabs that live in Tampa Bay can’t hold on to the sea floor and they get flushed out of Tampa Bay. You know what a tarpon’s favorite food is? You guessed it, crabs! So when these crabs are getting flushed out of Tampa Bay, the tarpon bite turns on… big time!

So… are you ready to hook a 150lb+ fish that jumps, screams drag off of your reel and leaves you breathless?

Here are the dates that you simple must book if catching a Tampa Bay tarpon is on your 2010 things to do…

April 30th – 31st

May 1st – 3rd

May 12th – 18th

May 27th – 29th

June 10th – 15th

June 23rd – 27th

July 8th – 14th

July 20th – 27th

To reserve your Tampa Bay tarpon fishing charter right now, CLICK HERE!

Share on Facebook

Looking to plan your fishing trip around catching a certain species of fish? Need to know where to stay? Want to know when the best time of year to catch just about everything is? Check out my 2010 Tampa Bay area Fishing Charter Planning Guide. Just about everything you need to know is here!

Tarpon:

When:
Best Bet = May – July
Next Best =  August – September

Where:
St. Petersburg

Bag limit:
Capt. Clay Fishing Charters practices “catch and release” only with tarpon.

Snook:

When:
Best = March – June and October – November
Next best = December

Where:
St. Petersburg, Tampa Bay, New Port Richey, Tarpon Springs

Open Season:
March 1st – April 30th and September 1st – November 30th (note: We are allowed to target snook year ’round but we can only keep them for dinner during “open season”)

Bag limit:
1 per person per day. Fish must be no less than 28″ long or more than 33″ long.

Redfish:

When:
Best Bet = February – June and October-December
Next Best = The rest of the year.

Where:
St. Petersburg, Tarpon Springs, New Port Richey and Tampa Bay

Open Season:
Year ’round

Bag Limit:
1 per person. No less than 18″ long or more than 27″ long

Spotted Sea Trout:

When:
Best Bet = January – March
Next Best = The rest of the year

Where:
Tarpon Springs, Clearwater, New Port Richey, Tampa Bay and St. Petersburg

Open Season:
South Region (South of Tarpon Springs, including Tampa Bay) Jan-October
North Region (Tarpon Springs North) March – January

Bag Limit:
South Region = 4 per person per day. No less than 15″ long and no more than 20″ long (one per person may be over 20″)
North Region = 5 per person per day. No less than 15″ long and no more than 20″ long (one per person may be over 20″)

Best of the rest.

Mangrove Snapper: Best Bet = May – September

Spanish Mackerel: Best Bet = March – November

Cobia: Best Bet = March – October

Grouper (inshore): Best Bet = November – March (call for current regulations on harvetsing)

Jack Crevelle: Best Bet = All Year

Sharks: Best Bet = April – November

Where to stay.

Tampa Area: Embassy Suites Tampa Airport (Special rates for my customers, call me for details)

St. Petersburg: Holiday Inn Sunspree Resort Marina Cove (within 1 mile of pickup location for all St. Pete charters)

Tarpon Springs and New Port Richey: Hampton Inn

Included in your charter.

• Use of rods, reels, tackle
• Live bait (available 99% of the time)
• Use of cooler with ice
• Cleaned and bagged fish
• Fishing Licenses
• Photos of your catch (emailed to you after charter)

You should consider bringing.

• Sunglasses
• Check the weather and wear warmer cloths that you think you’ll need. You can always peel off a layer or two if you get warm.
• Sunscreen
• Hat
• Cooler (for the car, not the boat) to take you catch home with you.

When you should book you trip.

As soon as you know the date(s) you would like to book, don’t hesitate, book them. Many of my repeat clients use my online reservation system and they book dates  months in advance. Don’t procrastinate and miss out on the only date you could go.

How you should book a trip.

Call me for current rates and specials and then place you reservation by phone or by using my online reservation system. Click Here

Other Useful Links (Updated Periodically)

Florida Saltwater Fishing Regulations (.pdf)

Tampa Bay Area Tide Predictions

Share on Facebook

Share on Facebook

Rebekah Cooper called me last December to schedule a fishing charter for herself and her husband Marquis as a Christmas present for him. We set a date in December but had to reschedule due to bad weather. A couple of weeks ago we finally were able to get out on the charter. We left Seminole boat ramp in search of speckled sea trout. The day started out kind of tough because somehow all my live shrimp made it out the drain of my live well. Luckily, I just happened to have a bag of frozen shrimp so we made do with the frozen shrimp on jigheads with popping corks. The trout ate it up. It didn’t take too long to get our limit.

I thoroughly enjoyed that trip with Rebekah and Marquis. Marquis and I really hit it off talking about sports, fishing and video games and such. I had such a great time that I asked Marquis if he would like to go on scouting trips with me when I need a buddy to tag along to find some fish. He said he’d love to. So we exchanged cell phone numbers and Rebekah said, “Do you text message much?” I said, “Yeah, I do text a good bit”. She said, “You’ve done it now, he’s gonna be texting you about fishing all the time. You’ve made a friend”.

A week goes by and I get a text from Marquis asking how the fishing was going. I told him that he wouldn’t believe it but that the day after I took he and his wife, I found a school of over 500 redfish and that they chewed the bottom out of the boat. He thought that was really cool.

Last Thursday I had a charter in the morning and the water was going to be low during the whole trip. I knew I couldn’t fish the redfish school that I had mentioned to Marquis a few days earlier. But, I figured that after the charter the water would be high enough to get on those redfish. So at 10:30am I called Marquis to see if he wanted to go fishing with me after my charter to check on that school of redfish I had told him about. He said that he’d love to.

So after dropping off my clients, I picked up Marquis and I could tell he was excited to go. We hauled off to the north of the ramp and I told him to hold on because I was going to “burn some gas” as I was in a hurry to catch up to those fish before the tide began to fall.

When we showed up, I searched for 15 minutes and couldn’t find the fish. I even called a buddy and told him that the fish we knew about from a week before were gone. Right before I hung up I spotted the school. 500 strong. I cast my jig out with one hand while the other hand held my phone to my ear. Two twitches and the fish was on.

Marquis loved fishing. LOVED it! Just like me. I really enjoyed his company because he was so unassuming, laid back, and passionate about fishing. He was in heaven that day. The fish were all around and they were eating. When he stuck his first fish he said that it was his biggest redfish ever. He smiled so big as he admired it and then let it go. He shook my hand and said, “Thank you.”  I patted him on the back and said, “Your welcome. Now go get another one.” He did too. He schooled me that day. He caught three fish for every one I hooked. And he smiled and laughed the whole time.

After several fish, I told him that I needed to get out of that spot before it got burned. What I meant was that if anyone saw us in there for too long they would know something was up. Then the spot would get hit by more and more people as fisherman tend to have loose lips.

I asked him if he was okay with hunting for other fish and he said that he was. We checked out at least 2 more miles of shoreline with only getting two more bites. He didn’t complain a bit. He genuinely seemed to be having a great time. After about 3 and a half hours I told him that I hate that it was a short trip but that I had to be heading back to pick up my kids. He said that was fine and that he had a great day.

While we were idling the boat to deeper water, he told me that he was headed to, “The deep blue sea in search of amberjack on Saturday”. Said he was going 60 miles out of Clearwater. He said that amberjack was his favorite fish to catch and one of his favorite to eat. He said the boat was full for this trip but he asked if I would like to come along on a deep water trip the following week. I told him that I would love to go offshore with him sometime but that I was already booked for a charter that day.  I asked him if it ever made him nervous to run that far out and he said no, that the boat handled rough water well and they watch the weather to make sure it’s safe.

The next day I had an inshore charter and the weather was beautiful in the morning. My clients even mentioned how calm it was. By noon, the winds had picked up and the water became rough. I remember it being odd that the wind was blowing so hard that early in the day because I had watched the weather forecast the night before and I thought the cold front wasn’t coming through until later in the day.

When I got home that afternoon, I called Marquis and left a message on his phone asking him if they caught a bunch of fish. I never heard back from him. On Sunday, I was standing around with a few other guides at an Outdoor Expo and I was telling them about this great friendship I had struck up with Marquis Cooper and that he played football with the Raiders. One of the guides asked me, “Did you hear about the football players that went missing yesterday?” My heart sank immediately. I called Rebekah Cooper and found out that Marquis was indeed on the boat.

Saturday morning my friend Marquis and three other anglers headed out to the “deep blue sea”.  Around midnight his family called the Coast Guard to tell them that Marquis and his crew were past due from their fishing trip. Yesterday they found Nick, one of the anglers, clinging to the upside down boat 35 miles west of Clearwater. He is still alive and recuperating. The other three anglers, including my friend Marquis, are still missing and the Coast Guard have given up their search.

I fear that I have lost a friend. I fear that wives have lost husbands. I fear that fathers have lost sons, mothers have lost sons, children have lost fathers…

I had already played out, in my mind, future fishing trips with my new friend. I will be praying for him, his family and his friends. I hope you will too.

UPDATE: 02-20-2010

I didn’t get to know Marquis Cooper as well as I would have liked to. It’s been almost a year since his loss and I wish that our friendship would have had a chance to grow. I think we would have gone on several fishing trips by now and would have had many more in the future. As we’re coming up on the anniversary of his loss, I want to send my thoughts out to his wife, daughter and family. I’m praying for you guys.

Share on Facebook