Everything has been great in the entire Southwest Florida region all week. Anglers have been catching Summer species like tarpon, snook, and cobia as well as our Winter quarry off sheepshead, black drum, and trout. It’s been a crazy week as schools of tarpon continue to move down from the northern areas in massive pods. These fish have ranged from 80-150lbs and are following schools of threadfins and pilchards South. I’m not sure how much longer this will last, but there eating and targetable.
Tripletail fishing isn’t good for numbers of fish as of now, but when you find one its big. Tripletail have been caught up to 16lbs this week, with an average fish coming in at about 7lbs. While running around nearshore looking for tripletail anglers throughout the area are coming across massive areas of mackerel. These fish can be seen jumping all around the baitfish schools and are very easy to catch with a simple spoon that has a small wire leader attached. So, if you want a lot off action for kids or just to have fun anglers should be able to catch 30-60 in four hours no problem.
The offshore guys are doing just as well. The mangrove snapper bite continues to be excellent both during the day and at night. Those boats that are using live pinfish seem to be catching most of the fish over 7lbs. Those going out deep for here, say 120 feet or more are also doing well on red grouper, porgies, African pompano and a few pelagic.
The back bays, rivers, and creeks continue to hold redfish, trout, sheepshead, snook, and black drum. It’s been a huge sigh of relief having trout move back into the area. For almost two years it wasn’t looking good. The spirt of cool weather must have been the trigger trout needed to come back where they should have been. Trout have been caught all over the bays, passes, and even on the nearshore reefs all week. Pompano are moving in as they should with the cooler conditions. Other than that, we’ve been plenty busy with jacks, mangrove snappers, and our newest residents the juvenile mutton snappers.
Tight lines, Capt. Greg Stamper
Snookstampcharters.com
239-313-1764