Overall, it was an average week of fishing. Depending on what species you were targeting, changed how successful you were. The nearshore and offshore bites seemed to be the best, while the back water stuff was hit or miss. We have not yet seen the bait in good quantities inside the bay, but it has been around the beaches and bridges. Around the bridges and beaches the main bait has been threadfin herring and pilchards.
Nearshore fishing continues to be all about tarpon. The tarpons have been in the 70-110-pound class and very active. Good numbers of fish have been found in areas, hanging around for several days in arow. Having a variety of baits is a good idea moving forward, as somedays the fish are more inclusive to take one or the other. Most of the fish are being found on side scan. But occasionally you will see rollers. Crabs and large threadfin herring worked best this week. For those of you that do not want to fight a fish for thirty minutes plus, try permit fishing. Permit are full speed and in good numbers of the local wrecks.
Snook fishing went well this week, minus a few days. There have not yet been good numbers of fish on the beaches I have been to, but that should change soon. If there is a lot of bait there, there will probably be snook. The redfish bite was tough this week. There really is not anything that would be a reason for this. I caught very few, even on good tides. The fish we did get were all upper slot and healthy. Shrimp and pilchards worked best for those, as cut baits did very little. Trout are recovering from the red tide months ago and are starting to fill in where the previous week there were none.
Offshore reports continue to be good. Those that took advantage of the calm days, went out far and were rewarded for it. The grouper bite was excellent out past 120 feet. Limits were taken quickly and then it was on to snappers. Reports from those that got out 150-plus included sailfish, wahoo, as well as mahi. The pelagic were all caught while trolling.
Tight lines, Capt. Greg Stamper
Snookstampcharters.com Bonita springs, Fl
239-313-1764
Tarpon fishing
