July continues to be one of the busiest months for fishing charters each year. This July was no acceptation to that trend, running a lot of Cape Coral fishing charters, meeting a ton of new friends, and seeing quite a few return clients as well. Summer time fishing around Southwest Florida did not disappoint either. All in all, leading to a fun, safe, and healthy month full of new memories my clients will not soon forget.
A large focus of the fishing this month was done around Sanibel and Captiva islands, primarily focusing on the passes. The passes are openings in Southwest Florida’s barrier islands that allow the water from Pine Island Sound and the waters of the Gulf of Mexico to pass through.
These areas have strong tidal currents and provide an excellent food supply to many snook, redfish, and trout that enter these areas each summer to breed. Using live baits on spinning rods, we would target these passes multiple ways. When the current was slowing down prior to slack tide we would often set up at docks and fish underneath the docks.
This type of fishing can be a challenge for even the most proficient anglers. The fish hide deep underneath these docks and love to find a piling covered in barnacles in order to break the fishing line. When a big fish is beat at its own game and caught from underneath a dock it can be very rewarding for any angler.
When the tide is really running fast through the passes we would take a different approach. We would often let the boat drift through the area with the current while dragging the baits behind the boat. This fishing tactic often lead to big snook that were laying in wait to ambush an unsuspecting bait. This is a little easier way of landing your dream fish, simply because there is less chance of the line breaking off on a piling.
Many of July’s Cape Coral fishing charters lead to inshore slams. An inshore slam is successfully catching a snook, a redfish, and a trout in the same day. This is an impressive accomplishment for any angler, especially a beginner. This accomplishment usually required us to be on the move and not wasting too much time on any one technique of fishing. Fishing the passes produced a ton of quality snook this month, but often times for the redfish we would venture deep into the maze of mangroves in order to land that big trophy redfish in shallow waters from near the mangrove islands.
Last but certainly not least, we had tremendous success using artificial baits (lures) to catch sea trout, jack crevalle, and lady fish on the shallow flats. We would target grass flats full of bait and often get the boat upwind of the flat allowing the wind to silently push the boat across the grass flat. As the boat drifted across the flat we would throw lures tricking hungry fish into eating, almost every cast.
As July closes and August begins we move into our normally slower time of the year. This allows us to give the boat some much needed TLC and add a few upgrades as well. The fishing is still great and we are here to help you check the inshore slam off of your bucket list today.
