Well, I am not sure where to start off with this report, as 5 months of struggles have inflicted the very region that I fish. Hurricane Ian was its name, and so many coastal regions took the brunt of it. Personally, at my marina located on the South end of Fort Myers beach we took 140mph winds and a 15-foot storm surge. Everything that was not a modern build was washed away, either into the bay or out into the Gulf. Very few docks were left in working condition, and even now there are few ramps open to the public. Most boats were damaged, sunk, or went missing. So, with that said things are slowly opening, and anything to the East of US-41 is now normal. So now that I have a new boat, let’s talk about fishing.
We had a significant bout with red tide about two weeks ago. There were fish kills from Boca Grande all the way to Naples. The recent few days things have cleaned up significantly, and fish are being caught. Any time we have these water issues, it is best to move as far back into the bays as possible, or up our rivers and creeks. These areas had fish, even when the very end of high tides brought in dead fish from the Gulf. Jack crevalle, redfish, snook, snappers, as well as some black drums were the targets. Shrimp worked well both live and used as tippet on jigs. Not much use trying to cast net your baits when red tide occurs, as even if you get a few, it will probably die in your livewell.
Nearshore there were a few pockets that did not have high concentrations of algae. Some permit were caught with some reports of tarpon as well. These tarpon are most likely local fish that made their way out of the Caloosahatchee river or others. The unseasonable warm water likely peaked their interest of seeing if the migration was here, coming from the South. Tarpon can tolerate some low levels of red tide. In fact, I remember a few years ago when the tarpon was smashing pinfish that were twitching on the surface. We were literally scooping a dying pinfish off the water’s surface, hooking it, and putting tarpon in the air. With that said, I do not want to see that again.
Offshore has been good overall. When the winds were not blowing hard, those that got out past the 110-foot mark did very well. Cut baits, whole sardines, and squid were the main baits. Red grouper, mangrove snappers, yellowtail snapper, as well as some mutton snappers have been caught regularly. I did not talk with anyone that got out much further than that, but if you did, I’d think it would only be better.
Tight lines, Capt. Greg Stamper
Snookstampcharters.com Bonita Springs
239-313-1764
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