Here comes another cold front just as things got good again! Looks like this weekend we will see low temperatures in the high 40’s and high temperatures around 73 degrees. To those of you from up north you are probably laughing right now, but our fish are true Floridians and do not like cold weather. The positive side is even this week during the warmup an array of different fish have been caught regularly. There were no signs of red tide anywhere I fished all week and with the cool down I do not expect this to change.
Starting off with what I mostly do, our backcountry bite was steady. Throughout the week spotted sea trout, black drum, and jack crevalle kept those wanting constant action busy. A variety of technics worked well all week, and both shrimp and crabs caught most of these fish. Cajun thunder popping corks drifted through the deeper sides of mangrove islands absolutely wrecked them. Jigs that we tipped with shrimp worked steadily through the water column as well as freelined shrimp or crabs also worked well. The redfish bite was good on the higher tides when we found clean water. As we receive cold fronts every week the wind stirs up the water, so one day the water is clean in an area and the next day it is not. Expect this pattern to continue, so find the clean water and you should find the fish.
The offshore bite was excellent for both the snapper fisherman and those out a bit deeper for the red grouper. Most of the mangrove snappers ranged from the 2–4-pound size on day trips, with the night fisherman catching some bigger. Porgies continue to be caught in the same areas in about 75 feet. Shrimp on jigs worked best for most anglers as they adjusted the weight of them based on how much current they had and how high up the water column the snappers moved while chumming. In some instances, they were able to free line shrimp as the fish came all the way up to the boat. Red groupers continue to be caught from 90 feet out on squid, pinfish, and sardines. Lots of gag grouper were also caught and released all week in these same areas.
The nearshore bite was all about sheepshead and black drum this week. Those that fished with crabs did best. Anglers using shrimp in these areas had a hard time getting pasted the snappers constantly stealing them. Snook and even redfish was a fun bi-catch on these reefs and wreaks while sheepshead fishing. There were a lot of them caught all week as they are hanging out on the structure too. A few tripletail were caught over the ten pound class as well as a cobia here and there.
Tight lines, Capt. Greg Stamper
Snookstampcharters.com Fort Myers beach, Fl
239-313-1764
Great week
