Finally, the warmup begins and as expected all the fish are responding well. The back bays and shallow waters are now feeling more like springtime fishing. Those fishing in our nearshore waters are slowly getting away from sheepshead and black drum fishing as they too are seeing our summer fish returning. Likewise, the offshore bite is starting to transition which means going out deeper will become the normal soon.
Starting off with the backwaters this week, fishing was great. We have seen a nice influx of pompano when the water has been clean, some up to 5 pounds. Jigs tipped with shrimp will be your best bet for several weeks following in and around all the passes from Naples to Boca Grande. Redfish are absolutely loving this warm up. Even on the windy days we did very well on redfish up to 14 pounds. Live pilchards, and shrimp seemed to be the best baits when red fishing. Snook fishing is heating up as our water temperatures are now consistently staying over 72 degrees.
Those fishing nearshore have been fishing for black drum and sheepshead on the wrecks and reefs and have done well on permit up to 30 pounds. Cobia has been another option on many of the wrecks and have been plentiful for those that are ready when they show up. The biggest news is that tarpon have been caught occasionally and seen often off our beaches as well as in some of the back water haunts. It will not be long before the mass schools of spawning tarpon are throughout the entire area.
Offshore was doable several days this week when the wind let down. There has been a bunch of nice snappers caught in the 80–100-foot range. Some of the areas still had porgies in them, but it seems that the bigger porgies are already starting to move out past 120. A few surprising catches of large cobia have been reported this week while anglers were fishing for red grouper. The grouper fishing continues to be good with some big red grouper being caught throughout the area. Smaller and barely legal red grouper have been caught in as shallow as 85 feet this week as well.
Tight lines, Capt. Greg Stamper
Snnookstampcharters.com Fort Myers beach, Fl
239-313-1764
Full speed
