What fishing I have done has had pretty good results. Snook have been pretty much anywhere I’ve fished for them. There’s still some on the beaches and in passes however they are starting to thin and head towards the flats and back country. My favorite bait is a 3-4 inch white bait (scaled sardine). While snook fishing in the back bays I’ve found quite a few juvenile tarpon. When the small tarpon have wanted to eat we’ve done pretty well with white bait or medium shrimp under a cork. When they don’t want to eat they’re pretty frustrating to watch roll over and over and not eat anything your throwing at them. Speaking of tarpon there is still plenty of larger tarpon around in both Charlotte Harbor and Tampa Bay. Two of my favorite baits for these late summer tarpon are the DOA Trolling Model Baitbuster sliver side with black back casted at rolling fish and fresh dead mullet sitting on the bottom in an area where tarpon have been seen.
Looking ahead to October the Tarpon fishing in should hold strong until we start getting cold fronts. The fall redfish bite should really kick into high gear with more and larger schools of redfish forming. Also as the water starts to cool I usually begin to start fishing for inshore shallow water grouper in depths from 7-15 feet. The nearshore run of fall Kingfish should fire up as well.
Capt. Bobby Woodard
www.Captain-Bobby.com
863-224-1418