Another week has changed things up a bit with a slight brush of our first cold front. It really wasn’t much in terms of cooling things but, it did give us some mornings in the low 70’s and a bit of wind. Fishing in the back bays and near shore waters was good this week minus a few areas that got a bit of red tide. The redfish bite continues to be good especially when fishing the last few hours of incoming as well as the first part of outgoing tide. Redfish have been caught on every type of bait and lure all week. We even caught a few as bi-catch while tarpon fishing this week.
Snook have started their move into the back bays, rivers, and creeks. A few big snook were caught on our local wrecks and reefs this week even though the migration to their winter homes has begun. The numbers of snook caught in the southern part of Southwest Florida have been good. Big fish continue to be caught both in the Caloosahatchee river up to the Bokeelia area. Threadfin herring, pilchards, and figure mullet have been the live baits to fish with on 3/o and 4/o circle hooks.
Tarpon of the juvenile size made an appearance this week in several of our bays. The tarpon are between 8-40 pounds and were very active during the first light and just before sundown hours. Look for these fish rolling in areas and approach them very slowly. I’ll just push in on a trolling motor stopping every 20-30 yards and fish ahead of me. By doing this anglers will have the best chance of not blowing the fish out and be able to pitch baits just ahead of were they roll.