By: Capt. Billy Norris
Temperatures are soaring down here in sunny Southwest Florida, and the fish are reacting accordingly. Â The Gulf water temperature is hovering right around 92 degrees, making many species of fish lazy and lethargic, while others that thrive in warm water are hot on the bite! Â In addition, the daily afternoon rains have limited many days to morning/early afternoon trips to ensure that we are off the water before the deluge begins.
The backwaters have been steady.  The stars of the show in the back have been snook and tarpon.  Snook absolutely love warm water, and we’ve had some epic days targeting linesiders this past month.  We are currently getting towards the time of year where snook spawn, so catching bigger females has been pretty common.  Snook are protandrous hermaphrodites, meaning that they are all born male.  By age seven or so, most male snook have actually reversed gender, and will live the remainder of their lives as females.  The majority of over-slot snook we catch are females.  When targeting larger snook, up your bait offering in size.  Our favorites to use are either ladyfish or black mullet.  Many of these snook are in the 35-45 inch range, so up your gear accordingly.  I prefer to use at a minimum 50-pound test leader (upping it to 80 if the water is a bit cloudy or you’re fishing at night).  Patience is the key with large snook, so don’t give up too quickly as you will certainly have to wait them out.  The backwaters have also been producing solid trout and a seemingly endless supply of mangrove snapper.
Offshore has been great as well.  Large snook have also been prevalent on the nearshore wrecks and reefs, and targeting them there has paid out nicely.  Again, patience is key when after XL snook.  There are also a TON of sharks around right now.  We have been catching a variety of species including but not limited to; tigers, hammerheads, spinners and blacktips.  The sharks are pretty much everywhere right now, so if you’re after jaws you should have a great day.  Grouper and American Red Snapper are closed at the moment, but the mangroves and yellowtail have picked up the slack offshore.  In addition, there have been a few cobia around and their numbers should increase as we get closer to fall.  August and September are also prime months to target jewfish.  The big females come in closer to shore to spawn, so getting your hands on a 2 or 300-pound fish is just a matter of athletic ability.  With jewfish, make sure you have gear that can handle it, and baits that seem almost comically big.  We use a Penn International 80 wide spooled with 600-pound monofilament.  For bait, essentially any large offering will do, with bonito, XL blue runners, or leftover carcasses of any kind being best.
Looking forward, its shaping up to be a good fall fishing season. Â There is a ton of bait around on the flats and offshore, and there is zero sign of red tide anywhere. Â If we can make it through the rest of hurricane season without a storm, we should have a solid fall/winter season. Â Kingfish, cobia, tripletail and more are right around the corner! Â The fishing is great, the water is calm, and these have been some beautiful days on the water so call today to book your trip!