Some of the best days of fishing this year have happened in the past few weeks! Redfish are finally showing up in good numbers, the snook bite is still very steady, and plenty of others are coming over the rail as well, including small tarpon!

Since the red tide has been floating in and out of our area, bait has been the hardest thing to catch. But if you can keep the bait alive, there plenty of clean water and fish in the backwaters to keep us busy!

As we are in the full power of the summer heat, the early morning and late evening bites are definitely the strongest! Epspecially on the stronger moon phases! Live sardines as well as various topwater lures are getting eaten regularly!

Fishing action is fired up here in the Naples/Marco area! Throwing live sardines along the mangrove shorelines is the key to catching most of these backwater game fish.

May 10, 2018 What a wild spring it's been here in Southwest Florida! The past couple months have had the most unpredictable weather in years. While it has been very dry, numerous frontal systems continued to pass over, keeping the winds and seas in an ever changing state. Along with the crazy weather, we've been battling some red tide, which can render some waters unfishable if the aglae is dense enough. Luckily the red tide only came into the backwaters betweeen Naples and Marco (the area we fish most often) for a few days, and has since moved to the north. Even with the adverse conditions, we were still able to get out and fish almost every day! Loading the livewell each morning with live sardines is the key to having good fishing action this time of year. Very few of our game fish will pass up a well presented live sardine. Snook and jacks continue to be the hungriest fish around, but there are plenty of other species being caught as well. Redfish are starting to show up more and more, we've caught one or two almost every trip in the last few weeks! Seatrout, bluefish, mangrove snapper, and small goliath groupers are taking baits also.

The waters have warmed up quite a bit since my last report, and some bigger and more aggressive fish have started to bite! The water temps in the gulf have been in the low to mid 70s for a couple weeks now, and the back bays are a little warmer still. We have transitioned back to fishing with live bait fish and are getting steady action on most days. The primary catches have been snook and jack crevalle of all sizes, but a few other species are finding the baits as well, such as tarpon, redfish, mangrove snapper, and a couple small goliath grouper.