The snook has been the main focus in June. The action has been consistently good with a ton of small snook and some monsters mixed in. The bait has been hit or miss and tough to find down south, on account of all of the fresh water being sent out of the Caloosahatchee. The water down south has been a nasty coffee brown color, forcing me to focus on fishing further north around the passes in order to find clean water.
Not too far north though, there is red tide stretching down to Boca Grande causing a ton of dead snook, tarpon, and even goliath grouper to wash up on the pristine beaches. Affects of red tide and dead fish have been reported all of the way south to redfish pass. This should be unacceptable to anyone who lives in or vacations to Southwest Florida, if action is not taken soon by our government the fishing in our area will be decimated and more importantly the home values and tourism will be in the dumps do to our waters being a filthy cesspool.
Okay, now off of my soap and back to the fishing. Being sandwiched in the middle of bad water has led to some amazing snook fishing. Multiple days in bland pass it sounded like fireworks were going off with so many snook hitting bait in top of the water. They were so thick and hungry at times we were not even fishing near the docks, we were throwing baits into the middle of the pass getting bite after bite. One day the crabs were washing out of the pass floating on top of the water and as they floated by next to the boat, you could see 4 snook swimming underneath. The snook were taking turns making passes at the crab with an explosion on the top of the water until the crab was eaten. It was an amazing sight.
I think my best story was one of my clients had a large threadfin with a weight casted perfectly under the dock. It sat for a minute or two and all of the sudden the rod was almost ripped from Kevin’s hand. He reacted quickly and grabbed the rod with both hands and held on tight while the drag was screaming loud. The line then broke off and Kevin looked at me and said, “what did I do wrong?” I laughed and told him there was nothing he could do to stop that truck.
On a positive note, the fresh water dumps have been stopped for now and should be clearing up soon. Hopefully with some luck the red tide will also dissipate soon and life will get back to normal. I’m grateful to be stuck in the middle because good fishing can still be found. Book your trip today!
