Summer time

Overall, it was a good week to be on the water. As a back bay guide seeing more than a foot of water clarity was just outstanding! We had some strong winds but coming from the East does not muck things up much. The clean water nearshores brought bait that was easy to catch, as well as snook on the beaches. The nearshore guides finally, left the bay for most of the week. Offshore guides had several chances to fill coolers with the usual suspects and some surprises.
We start off with the offshore guides this week, as they finally got what they have been looking for. The lay down in wind, minus the weekend made trips doable. Red groupers, nice mangrove snappers, as well as vermillion snappers was the main catch. A few anglers got into some nice mutton snappers in the 120-foot range. A few trips when they got out to 140 plus surprised a few tunas, one wahoo that I know of, as well as some small mahi.
Nearshore was good several days for both cobia and permit. The tarpon bite seemed to slow down a bit off Fort Myers, but that’s perhaps the beginning of the spawning. Tarpon this time of the year can be a bit moody as they are not always eating. Just like when we were all young sometimes we have other things on our mind. The permit bite got right back to what it was before all the wind. We have had some great outgoing tides to catch crabs on so finding the right bait for permit has been easy.
The back bay bite has been excellent. On the higher tides the trout bite has been outstanding. Limiting out in 45 min is the usual right now. It is crazy to think 3 years ago we could not catch a trout, and now we run across 6-pound fish on occasion. Snook are happy now as the white bait has shown up good. Anglers can now begin snook fishing our beaches regularly. Redfishing continues to be a cut bait thing. The one downside to the redfish around here is they are all big fish. That sounds like a good problem to have, but were our next year’s slot fish at?
Tight lines, Capt. Greg Stamper
Snookstampcharters.com Fort Myers beach, Fl
239-313-1764