The winds been blowing constantly this week, however the fishing’s been good. Most of the fishing has been in the back bays, rivers, with a few near shore trips. We will most likely continue this pattern till mid-week as the weather forecast continues to look the same. The strong winds will either help tides or hurt them here in Southwest Florida. On days when we have strong North or East winds water will be held out of the bays. Our already sub-negative Winter low tides will be even lower, and the high tides will often be several inches less than normal. So, this pattern will continue till weeks end.
There’s a plus to low water for anglers though. Fishing docks will be a good thing to do during this week. Sheepshead, black drum, snook, and redfish will all be pushed of the flats to the deeper water, and that includes docks. I’ll recommend shrimp on 2/0 circle hooks with 30lb fluorocarbon leader. You’ll also need to tighten that drag up a bit, as you’re going to need the first 10 seconds of the fight to pull the fish away from the structure. Anglers will have to get those fish out of the pilings or risk being broke off. We will win some and lose some, but it’s a blast trying. Most of these fish are between 4-12 pounds with the occasional small mangrove snapper thrown in.
Nearshore the bite continues to get better and better for black drum, sheepshead, kingfish and tripletail. Crabs and shrimp on jigs worked well for the bottom fish and the kingfish were all caught trolling large plugs in about 45 feet. Since we had so much wind this week most of the bigger boats stayed reasonably close. Only one day did we have a chance to get out far, for example 50 miles. The one offshore trip yielded red groupers, porgies, and mangrove snappers.
Tight lines, Capt. Greg Stamper
Snookstampcharters.com
239-313-1764 Fort Myers, Florida
snookstampcharters@gmail.com