Gulf and Estero Bay Fishing Produce Snapper and Redfish

Capt. Rob Modys
August 24, 2010
Fort Myers - Saltwater Fishing Report

The bite on the nearshore reefs picked up a bit over the past week or so. The big mangrove snapper have finally taken up residence there along with a good amount of keeper size gag grouper and schools of spanish mackerel. They are all chewing well on cut frozen threadfin herrings fish on the bottom. Big snook are also biting in the same area on live and cut bait fished just off the bottom in about 20 feet of water. My charter anglers are also catching a few nice flounder in the sand, just off the reef along with a mixture of blacktip, bull, lemon, dusky, silky and hammerhead sharks. The redfish are finally schooling up in the back country with pods of 20 to 50 fish in a school. Patience pays by coming onto the flats slowly with a trolling motor or push pole while watching for fish to "push" through the water. We've had the best hookup ration using artificial Gulp shrimp on small yellow jig heads. A few tarpon are around the mouths of the creeks and rivers and seem to bite best in the early morning or just before dark. They aren't real big but they are a ton of fun to catch. The sea trout bite was excellent but most were smaller sized with one exception... Big topwater artificials seemed to catch the most big trout.

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