Early April fishing in Sarasota/Tampa Bay area- suggestions?

[Tuna Colada]

I will be in the area in early April and want to fish for more than the usual grouper, snapper, sheepshead etc, that we normally get.
Is it the right time for kingfish? If so, how far offshore do you need to go?
When does tarpon season start heating up?
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks.

[alleydc]

Kingfish show up when the water temperature reaches about 70-72 if I recall correctly. It is more a factor of the weather than the date on the calendar. Tarpon are the same way, but the water temp is higher. For kings, you are generally looking at mid to late March for the biggest part of the run. For tarpon, May-June seems to be the general start. April can be good for other fish though. I suggest you go to WWW.Floridasportsman.com and click on the "forums" link. Start lurking in the West Coast forum.

[chorn24]

You should have no problems at all finding King and Spanish Macs around then, if you go out farther its a good month for Blackfin Tuna and maybe some Dolphin, that's a great time to fishs all in all, I like April and May the best for spring time fishing in the Tampa Bay area. Grouper should be bitting to. Kingfish can be found from the Skyway bridge to hard bottom the beaches, hard bottom in any depth for that matter and every artificial should hold some, look for birds and sky rocketing fish, you can also drag the shipping channel, if you are looking for eating fare, target the smaller ones (less mercury) use king spoons for these and troll 5-7MPH, if you want large ones use Live baits slow trolled or anchor up and chum.

[Tuna Colada]

Thanks for the replies. chorn24, how far out do you have to go for Blackfin and Dolphin?
Are there any of those Goliath Groupers in the area?

[chorn24]

Tuna, I actually caught my largest blackfin(36#) at 20 miles, I have also caught Dolphin at this spot form 2-8 pounds, my largest dolphin last year was 22 ponds at 40 miles, are you bringing your boat? I dive also, there are so many Goliath grouper compared to 10 years ago that I cant go diving without seeing 2-15 per dive on artificial reefs, it used to be I would see one every 2.5 to 3 years.

[Tuna Colada]

My father's boat- Hydrasports 2800WA- is down at his house there. He will most likely not want to make a trip so far off shore so maybe Kingfish is the way to go unless those Goliaths can be found not too far offshore.....

[chorn24]

Any of the artificials should hold goliaths and kings, the Goliaths I have seen go from 50 to 600 pounds, I think they are becoming over populated, they should start issuing Deer tags through a lotery for them, Large live bait and a fence post should do the trick.

[alleydc]

If you want to hook up with a goliath, use a large blue runner and hook it up to your anchor windlass. Drop it on any of the near shore reefs and hold on. Using an anchor windlass is probably the only way you'll stand a decent chance of pulling them off the reef.