To say it is hot out would be an understatement. Water temperatures inshore start off at about 89 degrees at their coolest, then by midafternoon reach 92. Those that can fish before sunup or an hour or two after it have the best chance. By 10am the heat is on, and the bite gets tough. Decent size bait in the backcountry has been slim pickings. Most of the flats only have pinfish or mojarra on them, and not in good numbers. Artificial lures have been in play for most of the week, if you work them slow.
Juvenile tarpon during the first light hours continues to be good. Most of the fish were caught when it was still dark out until about 8am. The heat of the day begins to show up around 10am, making things tough. A few days we did manage to catch some snook and redfish. Practically every fish we caught was using shade as its home. With so much damage to our coastal mangrove shorelines due to hurricane Ian, we have a lot less shorelines in which shade is now found. Docks, mangrove shorelines that survived, as well as bridges are a good place to fish after 8am.
The offshore red snapper season is now at its end. Anglers catch fish constantly all season long and will undoubtfully do so till it closes on the 31st. Most of the big red snappers have been out past 150 feet and caught on all the frozen baits regularly. Those fishing shallower in about 100 feet of water continue to catch mangrove snappers, mutton snappers, as well as yellowtail often. There have been some catches of mahi in as shallow as 70 feet this week. This is a bit of an anomaly, and the fish are tiny but cool to see.
The nearshore bite has produced some nice permit, cobia, as well as snook. Those that fished to the southern end of the region seemed to do best. Live threadfin dropped around the structure worked best for both the snook and cobia. The permit as usual ate crabs both freelined and slightly weighted with a split shot on most of the days. Legal size mangrove snappers, grunts, as well as some triggerfish were the main bycatch when shrimp was also used.
Tight lines, Capt. Greg Stamper
Snookstampcharters.com Bonita Springs, Fl
239-313-1764
92 degree water temp
