Fresh Venice Fishing Reports

The boys wanted to try for Tarpon but the peak of Tarpon season is over and targeting them can be difficult at times. I moved is into an area of backcountry shoreline where I have been seeing some smaller tarpon rolling recently. Immediately we saw the first few fish roll and eventually landed a couple of these fun sized Tarpon. Afterwards we made our way north towards Sarasota Bay and the remainder of the morning targeted Snook and Snappers along structure and ultimately finding a large school of permit which produced double after double hook-ups for the remainder of the trip.

Fishing out of Venice, Florida it was non-stop action with lots of Redfish, Snook, Snappers, and Sheepshead bending rods and pulling drag all afternoon long.

The inshore fishing has been really hot lately since the water temperatures have dropped. On this morning the Redfish bite was intense with lots of perfect slot-size fish being caught. As we moved around fishing structure we also caught very god numbers of Flounder, Sheepshead, and Snappers to round out the morning.

This was only High Class Hooker Charters' second trip since Hurricane Ian came through our area. Fortunately, our area was sparred any major damage and we have been able to resume fishing. The bite was hot this morning. We started out looking for some small tarpon in a couple of areas in the south bay. Unfortunately they weren't really active and after seeing only a couple rolling fish we decided to move up the bay and try and find some fish that wanted to eat. After a move up the bay we were rewarded with lots of Redfish, some Black Drum, Sheepshead and Mangrove Snapper. Finally we made a move into a backcountry area and finished up on some active Snook to end the day.

Night fishing is always a great time to be on the water. The temperatures are cooler and the fishing is hot. We started out targeting Snook and Spotted Trout under the dock lights, catching and releasing more than we could count, and then moved into a back area to catch some "fun size" Tarpon in the mangroves under the moonlight.

First of two trips with these guys from W. Virginia. The seas were flat and we decided to head out into the Gulf to fish the wrecks and ledges. First line in the water produced a savage hit from a huge Barracuda and for the next hour we caught many big Barracuda both sight fishing and trolling. Later we headed to some rock ledges for some catch and release action on Lane, Mangrove, and Yellowtail Snappers, Gag and Red Grouper, and a few Hogfish.