It has been extremely hot all week and it looks like we will have a lot more of the same for a while. Fishing early in the morning or in the evening will be the normal for many anglers thru August. Your best bet will be mornings or evenings with good moving water. Look at your local tide stations and try to pick when you will fish based on that. Those that are fishing midday when the tide is slow, or slacking will make catching fish challenging.
Nearshore tarpon fishing throughout the area continues to be a sure thing. There is a good hill tide this week. Those anglers that can fish on those big outgoing tides, should find the silver king in and around all the passes during that time. Lots of crabs will be flowing out of the passes, creating somewhat of a buffet for tarpon. Permit fishing continues to be strong from 30 feet out so when your fishing those tarpons on one day, collect the small crabs that are floating by you for tomorrows permit trip.
The back bays continue to be saturated with juvenile tarpon. The bite has and will continue to be good early in the morning or even at night. Pilchards, small pinfish, and mojarra have worked best, under corks with about a 3-foot leash. Snook started acting a bit weird this week, so looks like another spawn is coming. This should be the last spawn of the year. After this spawn expect all the fish to spread back out and be feeding! Redfish fishing slowed down a bit for me. I can attribute my lack of action to the fact the only time I tried it was already ridiculously hot out thus the fish most likely just did not want to eat. So, the theme continues fish early or late when it is not super-hot.
Offshore has been fantastic for those that are running out 60 miles. Red snappers continue to pour in everyday some pushing the 30lb mark. Gag groupers, mangrove snapper, lane snapper, and porgies continue to be the bycatch. Several boats ran into blackfin tuna again as well as some small mahi. This pattern will continue all the way to the July 25th when the red snapper season closes, and anglers are less eager to run 20 miles further.
Tight lines, Capt. Greg Stamper
Snookstampcharters.com Fort Myers beach, Fla
239-313-1764