Another week of consistent weather continues. It is hot, it is raining somewhere, and it is consistent. The dog days of Summer have certainly begun, and you can plan on the weather being basically the same for months to come. Rain is a good thing for the bays and rivers, however. The water temperatures in some areas are already in the upper eighties. The rain inland fills up the drainage ditches as well as the creeks and acts as a cooling agent. The water coming out, can drop surface water temperatures several degrees over short periods of time, making fish active.
Redfish love overcast, rain, and the dirty water that it brings. The water will be full of nutrients that the bait fish enjoy. Where there is bait, there will be predators. Snook as well as tarpon also take advantage of these water sheds. Often especially in the early morning hours, fishing will be at its best. The evening rains start to cool off the water, and when the sun sets, it can get no warmer. This is when the water will be at its coolest and will stay that way until a few hours after sunrise.
The nearshore waters are teaming with tarpon from Naples all the way through Tampa. Fish can be found as close as a few hundred yards off the beach, all the way out to over 100 feet of water. Live threadfin herrings are working well on these schools of tarpon, as well as crabs in the 2-4-inch range. Permit fishing continues to be easy for anglers fishing the high relief wrecks in 30-50-feet. Permit also eat crabs and they prefer those that are smaller than what the tarpon are eating. Cobia has been a nice bycatch when permit fishing, as well as the random snook.
Offshore continues to be good. The best reports came from the 125 foot out areas. Red grouper, red snapper, as well as some blackfin tunas ended up in a lot of coolers. Those that fished in 100 feet of water did well on mangrove snappers, vermilions, as well as some smaller yellowtail. A few reports of mahi up to 3-5-pounds came in late in the week.
Tight lines, Capt. Greg Stamper
Snookstampcharters.com Bonita Springs, Fl
239-313-1764
Rain on me
