We did have had a few days of warm up, and then it got cold again. Yesterday we started off with the air temperature at 39 degrees with the water temperature at 59. The bite was tough with another dip in water temperature as expected. Pre-front anglers did well from the skinny water all the way out to 150 feet.
Back Bay and inshore fishing were just getting fired up, as early in the week the water was warming a degree or two each day. Redfish were in the shallows during the low tides sunbathing on the darker flats and along the mangroves during the afternoon. Most of the redfish caught were in slot and taking both shrimp and crabs regularly. Sheepshead fishing is full speed both in the bays and out on our nearshore rock piles and wrecks. Pompano fishing has been a bit hit or miss lately, but once our waters clean up that should return. If its action you seek, trout are seemingly everywhere now and a simple popping cork with a live or artificial shrimp under it will keep one busy.
Most of the nearshore trips continue to bring a lot of pass crabs with them as bait. Their main target has been the sheepshead. Using crabs’ verses shrimp continues to work well to limit the amount of snapper caught should one use shrimp. Snook, some redfish, black drum, and occasionally flounder have been the bi-catch. There is some nice tripletail out there, so running a few trap lines when moving from place to place is a good idea.
Offshore up until the winds got going was excellent this week. Those that wanted red grouper had no problem finding them once they got out to 100 feet. The bait of choice was sardines this week with squid coming in a close second. Those that did not go out past 100 feet did well on the mangrove snappers, yellowtail, and lanes. The snapper fishermen used primarily shrimp on jigs and chummed constantly until their limits were meet. Kingfish are becoming an easy bi-catch for those out deep, and simply leaving a live bait out on the surface will usually work.
Tight lines, Capt. Greg Stamper
Snookstampcharters.com Fort Myers beach, Fl
239-313-1764
Come on Spring!
