Foggy mornings

Southwest Florida’s been having some fantastic weather this week. Low winds and daytime temperatures in the high 70’s, does not get much better. Fishermen had plenty of options from the skinny back bay waters, all the way out to 180 feet. Bait fish are scattered throughout the area as well as the predators that follow it. If you have not contacted your favorite guide by now, most of the good tide days the next few weeks are taken.
Starting again with the back bay bite this week, we had new visitors showing up. The “big ugly” aka black drum have found there way into the estuaries. These black drum are up to 50 pounds and can be seen making large muds when in the shallow waters. A simple jig with a shrimp is a simple way to catch these fish. Pompano are now being caught in good numbers and size. Most of the pompano will be in the 2–3-pound range with a few fish up to 6 pounds caught this week. Trout continue to be a main stay on the flats and adjacent areas near them, as well as in some of our passes. Red fishing continues to go well, with a lot of smaller fish in and around the bay entrances and bigger fish back cruising the mangrove shorelines on the lower tides.
Nearshore continues to be permit and cobia game. There have been a few more tripletail in the 6–10-pound class, but I haven’t seen any toads brought back in yet this week. Kingfish as well as Spanish mackerel are becoming another option for those that just want action. The snapper fishing when anglers are sitting on wrecks and reefs is still going well if you commit to chumming a bit before fishing. A few sightings of black drum schools have also been seen as anglers run around from place to place.
Offshore has been snappers up to 6 pounds and grouper. Gag groupers have been caught up to 30 pounds when using chicken rigs with large pinfish or grunts as bait. Kingfish has also been a bi-catch for the offshore boats when they leave a flat line of the back of the boat with a live blue runner or bar jack on it. Other bottom dwellers have been caught such as porgies, lane snappers, and a few scamp grouper.
Tight lines Capt. Greg Stamper
Snookstampcharters.com Fort Myers beach, Fl
239-313-1764