By: Capt. Bart Marx
This month with good weather permitting, running offshore is a little tricky. Red grouper out past 100 ft. you may also find some nice scamp grouper and some gag grouper and on some of the wrecks in the 100 ft. range there should also be some nice yellowtail snapper. It is time to watch for the shrimp boats to be offshore too, somewhere around 8 to 15 miles offshore. They clean their nets and decks in the early morning as this is a major chumming event and it attracts all kinds of fish. You may find blackfin tuna in there slick and plenty of sharks too! In the fifty-foot range on some of the natural bottom you can find some lane snapper, white grunts and a few different porgy species and there may also be some gray/mangrove snapper and hogfish. With the shrimp boats around, is a clue to use shrimp in the local waters for the fish to eat. Shrimp is what the hogfish will eat as they like crustations or anything crunchy. Close to shore, there may be some pompano still swimming around looking for a shrimp to eat, they like moving water along the passes or along the outside edges of the sand bars close to deeper waters. There should be plenty of reds and trout to target inshore. I like drifting the grass flats using any of several types of lures to target trout. Popping cork and a shrimp or gulp shrimp works well. You may also use some type of top water lure that makes plenty of noise, or a suspending lure with some rattles in them the noise gets their attention and then they will attack your lure, as they are aggressive feeders. If you have a fly rod, you will have a lot of fun if you find an area that is thick with trout. Black drum around structure bridges and similar structure use blue crab pieces to harvest them. If you would like to learn some of the techniques, come along with Capt. Bart Marx on his boat. If you do not have a boat, or just visiting Southwest Florida, contact me at 941-979-6517 or captbart@alphaomegaccharters.com to book an amazing charter! I also provide training sessions to show you where you can take your boat safely without destroying grass beds in the harbor and show you how to use the gear you already have. Always remember singing drags and tight lines make me smile!