Finally, we have had a few days of lighter winds allowing fisherman options as to where they wanted to fish. There was the choice of going out deep a few days this week making lots of offshore captains happy. The nearshore waters stayed relatively calm on the days when our winds did pick up, as they were predominantly from the easterly direction. Those fishing the back bays found an assortment of fish to target.
Tides become more of a factor as we enter our Winter. Moving forward we will see more of our negative mean tides. This simply means that water will be exceptionally low especially around the new and full moon phases. Add influence from strong winds and even some of the marked channels will only be inches deep in spots. The benefit of this is there is less area for fish to spread out in making the deep holes, docks, and rivers the places to fish. This was the pattern we saw a few times this week and will certainly see more often moving forward.
Redfish, sheepshead, snook, and pompano kept most back bay and flats fisherman busy this week. Surprisingly, a lot of sheepshead came into the bay early in the week and were hungry. These sheepshead are beginning to fatten up on crabs, shrimp, barnacles, etc. Redfish continue to be caught in good numbers using artificial swim baits on 3/8oz jig heads and top water lures, as well as snook. Pompano continue to come and go in our passes, but this next cold front should make them more consistent in the future.
Nearshore fishing was excellent for cobia all week. Snook and redfish are also found on these same wrecks as the cobia and eating primarily threadfin herring. There is still some tarpon off our beaches that can be targeted, but it is starting to slow down a bit. This next cold front may push them further South of us, but you never know as years past we have had them around through December.
Offshore was again good for red grouper, mangrove snappers, and kingfish. The kingfish have certainly shown up full speed and are being found from just a few miles of the beaches all the way out. Trolling spoons or large plugs has been working very well for those targeting these kingfish, as well as slow trolling live blue runners.
Tight lines, Capt. Greg Stamper
Snookstampcharters.com Fort Myers beach, Fl
239-313-1764