Boca Grande and Charlotte Harbor

Capt. Van Hubbard
July 27, 2005
Boca Grande - Saltwater Fishing Report

Still fishy, just start out early.

Web7-26-05

Still fishy just tired.

We are still catching some good fish. I just have a hard time sitting down at the computer. Snook still keep us busy between redfish. No red-hot bites but double headers of either or both are common when they do turn on. I’m sure enjoying my nice shady T- Top when the sun gets high. Fish are scattered from the rivers all the way to the Gulf. Between red tide scares and tropical depressions it’s been a challenging summer. So far we have been very lucky staying away from both. We’ll just see what next month brings?

Speckled trout are around if you want to catch some. The minnows are smaller now and perfect for trout. Be careful; you can gill a bunch of fry, and face a messy task picking em out. Soft plastics are easier and sometimes seem to get larger fish too. Charlotte Harbor and Pine Island Sound are still brackish but best bets here.

Spanish Mackerel are beginning to show up. I saw several on today’s trip. The birds are crashing the small baits at dawn along the beaches. Some big ones are in the Harbor. We see rockets looking for tarpon. Snapper are abundant but not very large. They are tasty if you like pan fish. We use that fluorocarbon exclusively here.

We also saw several tarpon today but they just teased us and continued on their way. They were slowly rolling and happy. We saw multiple fish more than singles today. We still have enough tarpon just not consistent. If you don’t mind a beautiful boat ride the odds of success are good. You may get into a big one or smaller ones; every day is different. Next week’s stronger tides should be better.

I saw a nice permit cruising behind a ray looking for bait this AM. It’s time to play with them off shore. These calm days are perfect. We get lucky and land some nice kings and cuda around the reefs while looking for the permit.

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