Fishing in the Naples and Marco Island backcountry and coastal near and inshore areas is excellent. We’re catching a variety of species with the biggest catches of late being sharks.
Bait fish of all kinds have invaded the coastal waters of SW Florida including pilchards, thread herring, glass minnows, big eye shiners and more. Consequently this causes bigger predator fish to move in.
Snook are prowling the beaches, passes and adjacent bays. Lots of smaller fish which I don’t mind but some bigger fish mixed in also. Live bait, jigs, spoons, plugs and flies can all be productive when fishing for snook. Pilchards are the live bait of choice. For spoons I like 1/4 to 3/8 oz. gold or silver spoons. For plugs top water is always fun. One catches less fish than live bait but is a lot more fun. When fly fishing for snook most of the time we’re using streamers that resemble minnows. White, green, black and brown flies can all work. Depends on the water color.
Redfish are fairly prevalent this time of year. I’ve recently seen them cruising the surf along the beaches as well as in some of the backcountry bays. Again, pilchards, shrimp, jigs and plugs can all be productive.
Snapper seem to be everywhere but the larger snaps, 10-15” haver thinned out. They were gang busters in July and August. They are my favorite eating fish.
We’ve had good success targeting mackerel off the beaches specifically over some near shore wrecks. Spoons work well as they cover a lot of territory and closely match the bait the macs are feeding on.
The mackerel are oily and bloody and make excellent cut bait for sharks. I have a couple backcountry bays that have sharks as well as some new shore wrecks.
Give me a call and let’s go fishing.
Capt. Mark
239-450-9230