Trout, Snook, Redfish, Mackerel and more in Southwest Florida

After several weeks of perfect weather this past one was more of a challenge as poor tides and days of really strong winds and some rain gave us a challenge. Even so, fishing was good as our waters continue to warm as we move into one of my favorite months to fish.
Spanish mackerel fishing has been great, most of our mackerel fishing has taken place in Charlotte Harbor, not only are they very plentiful, they are running big. On many of our recent trips we had children on board where they had a blast catching big macks, sea trout, bluefish, ladyfish and even a few sharks all from the same spot. A great way to get a kid hooked on fishing and also the best fishing choice over the slow moving tides.

Trout fish was good all week and even better once we left the slow two a day tides and went back on four a days. Fish are getting larger on average and often once the bite starts the action just continues to get better with more fish responding to the feeding activity.
Slow tides and low water made it challenging for redfish and snook early in the week, but we put together some good catches as west winds and afternoon high tides had them on a good feed around oyster bars and island Points in Matlacha Pass. About every area we try for a redfish we catch multiple snook.
Also, we are catching a few large jack crevalle, this is great news as I haven’t really seen that many as they were also affected by last year’s cold winter. There just aren’t many fish that battle as hard as big jacks, while they have no food value they are very under rated as a great game fish.

Tarpon continue to move into our waters, this past week was pretty windy making them difficult to sight, but I have no doubt once the wind settles this weekend there will be a good showing of fish. This week we are on strong new moon tides, this should bring out some great fishing.

“Catch the Action”
with Captain Bill Russell