Fishing is Life!

Another cold front tried to make its’ way through Southwest Florida. Nothing really changed other than the fish North of us got clued in on becoming a snowbird. That basically means we have a ton of fish coming from the North and it is a great time to be in Southwest Florida. Just like most of the multimillionaires that come down here from December to around Easter it is that time of the year. These fish don’t have the same amount of finance, so they need to head down earlier and set up shop. Clients always ask, “what is the best time to fish” — well guess what? Here it is! Captains gave stellar reports of gag grouper, red snapper, mangrove snapper, as well as cobia reports all week. The crazy part was whenever they got over red snapper areas 150 feet plus that were not as productive as usual, they caught gag grouper up to 30 pounds. There has not been a push of kingfish reported to the North of us near Tampa, but nothing really going on here yet.
Back in the shallow water things have been good. We continue to find redfish in the bays. Redfish are being caught that are both very silver in color as well as very dark. This tells me we have fish coming into our bays from the clean gulf waters, as well as redfish that have been here all along. These fish are just getting fired up as we see no end on the abondance of bait we have. Snook are not going anywhere until the beaches get either blown out, or the bait moves somewhere else. We should continue to be able to sight fish snook from Naples all the way to Boca Grande for a few more weeks.
The nearshore bite continues to move slowly though into a fall pattern. Plenty of nice mangrove snappers and several nice cobia take up most of the meat eaters time. Those not worried about food, are catching tarpon. Tarpon have been thick from just off the beaches of Boca Grande south to Naples. It will not be long for the kingfish to catch up with the mackerel schools, as they are already moving in. I am guessing one good cold front, or two weak ones, will bring kingfish in as a regular target for many months to come.
Tight lines, Capt. Greg Stamper
Snookstampcharters.com Fort Myers beach, Fl
239-313-1764