The last couple months of fishing have had good days and bad. I've been breaking in a brand new boat since June, which takes getting used to, but the platform is much more roomy and comfortable for clients and myself! It's been one of the hottest summers, with record breaking water temperatures, which has rendered a lot of our back bay areas almost unfishable. I believe the fish that didn't move out of these areas are just plain too hot to eat aggressively. Temps have declined a little, and fishing action has definitely improved, but we are still primarily fishing closer to the outside passes and beaches, where fish seem to be happier and more plentiful. I expect as we get further into fall and temps drop a little more, fish will start to flood the back country and be very hungry! Here are some notable summer catches aboard the new boat!

We are about 6 weeks after hurricane Ian, the most devastating storm we've had in arguably the last 100 years. Many coastal neighborhoods from Marco Island to Sarasota experienced storm surge like never before. With that said, the Naples and Marco are fared considerably better than other towns to the north. Many of the businesses in town that were flooded are already open for business, including us! Fishing after the storm has been very interesting. For the first couple weeks, the water was very stirred up and dirty, and it seemed every fish was near the outside, along the passes. We had a few great days catching countless snook and redfish in a very small fishing area. As more time went by, the waters cleaned back up a bit, and the fish started to spread back out into the backwater bays and channels. The better days, with good current, snook, redfish, jacks, and seatrout are fairly active

It's been quite a busy holiday season and first month of the New Year! While the weather and temperatures have been on a bit of a roller coaster ride, we're still managing to stay on the fish pretty well. The last month of so has produced some of the best sea trout fishing I've seen in the area in years, a great thing to see! We're also seeing a wide variety of species coming to the boat, as we typically do in the winter. Sometimes we will catch as many as 12+ species in a half day trip. Cheers to another fishy year!

Whenever people ask when the best fishing is in Naples, usually September and October are in the conversation. Late summer, and through the fall, sometimes all the way through the new year if it stays warm, can be the best fishing you can get in Southwest Florida. It seems that everything is happening in these last couple months before the cold fronts start coming. This year has been no exception, redfish, snook, jacks, and sharks have all been punishing baits in the backwaters the last month or so! Another great part about the fall is there's usually no shortage of baitfish around, making the morning bait run quick and easy, more time for fishing!

We've had a quite a busy season this year, a welcomed bounce back from the shutdowns that caused us to fish quite a bit less last spring and summer. I can't remember a year I've been so busy through July! Generally, mid summer is our slowest time of year, air and waters reach their warmest temps, and fishing action is best near dawn and dusk. We are doing almost exclusively 4 or 6 hour morning trips right now to stay in the action, avoid the heat, and potentially dangerous afternoon thunderstorms. Baitfish can be found all over the inlets and beaches right now, making bait catching a breeze, and allowing us to get fishing by 7-7:30am. Snook fishing has been an absolute blast this summer, with tons of action on the "cookie cutter" 18-20 inch fish, and a few big ones in the mix. Aside from the snook, mangrove snapper have been quite aggressive as well. While they are smaller fish, snappers are one of the few inshore species we are able to keep at the moment, so they're great to see! Redfish have been making appearances more and more also, and the average size is getting close to 25 inches or more, which is close to what it was before the big red tide event a few years ago. Other recent catches include goliath grouper, barracudas, tarpon, sharks, and jack crevalle.

It's been a busy start to the season this year, and anglers have been catching a wide variety of fish! For the last three weeks or so, the weather has been warm, allowing the water to warm up to spring like tempuratures. With that warm water we have been fishing with live bait fish. On the days with better tides, fish are chomping up the baits happily! Common catches recently have been snook, jack crevalle, and mangrove snappers, but we are catching some seatrout, redfish, small tarpon, and others in the mix as well!