Another week has gone buy with plenty of options for most fisherman. The offshore bite was good for many that dealt with a few swells, out to about the 30-40-mile range. It all good though as we are almost out of the hurricane season influence, moving into our Southwest Florida Fall. The nearshore bite is still good as our pelagic fish keep following schools of bait south, eating constantly. Most anglers should have a great week in most of our waters this week, as the high-pressure system that loomed over us is now exiting.
It has been a transition week as far as the back bays are concerned. The redfish bite continues to be good for those that fish during stronger tides. Cut baits, worked very well this week on the outgoing tides including shrimp when the tide was coming in. Those that are out during the eddying of tides should start looking for black drum, pompano, and mackerel near our passes. A simple rule this time of the year is follow the bait. The snook bite continues to be great, especially using the pilchards that are all over our beaches. Snook, trout, jacks, and even juvenile groupers will keep a lot of anglers busy this next week.
Nearshore fishing on our wrecks and reefs continues to be good for snapper, permit, redfish, snook, and even a few flounder this week. This patten should continue to be in effect till we get an actual cool down of our waters. Until we get several days in arow with water temperatures dropping by several degrees, I would not expect much to change. I the crazy chance we do get a serious cold front, the permit fishing along with tarpon will be replaced with cobia, tripletail, mackerel, a serge of bluefish, and kingfish will be the next quarry.
Those that got out far, roughly 30 plus miles this week did have a few days to catch red groupers, amber jacks, and snappers of all the varieties. The good news for many is that many of these fish are moving in shallower slowly, giving boats going out for them shorter runs. Squid on jigs worked best for the red groupers this week as well as those using flutter jigs. Pilchards as well as small threadfins gave those that chummed a bit ahead of time their limits of snappers quickly.
Tight lines, Capt. Greg Stamper
Snookstampcharters.com Fort Myers beach, Fl
239-313-1764
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