Early Risers Get the Big Tarpon and Snook in Naples Backwaters!
Capt. Todd Geroy
August 9, 2012
Naples - Saltwater Fishing Report
August 9, 2012
The hot weather has continued here since my last report with just a bit of relief with some brief afternoon showers. Water temperatures have now spiked to 90 degrees on the area beaches making for some lazy fishing action overall. Not to say that we haven't had some great trips with some big fish caught in the last week, but the window of feeding action is short. The best action has been at day break and around sunset.
Snook action remains pretty good in the passes with a lot of small fish schooled up and gorging themselves on the millions of small bait fish that have been gathering there. It has actually been hard to catch them at times as they are so committed to the micro baits that they are even ignoring our offerings of flies, plugs and small live pilchards. I have some good success last Friday evening with local angler Doug Poe and a couple of his friends however. The three found plenty of snook cooperating in the Rookery Bay area before sunset releasing dozens along with some fiesty jack crevalle.
Tarpon made a good showing for us during the full moon phase last week. I had clients jump a number of fish on several trips using DOA Baitbusters on light spinning tackle. We managed to boat a fish of 40 lbs. on Friday morning followed by a great catch on Saturday by a female angler. 24 year old Maddy Werner of Ft. Lauderdale hooked into a big tarpon on her third cast as the tarpon were in a sunrise feeding frenzy. A long battle followed with the fish taking us nearly two miles offshore. After two hours, Maddy finally had the big fish boat side. We estimated the fish to be in the 115 lb. class. After a quick photo opportunity, the fish was released and an exhausted Maddy celebrated a great catch!
Maddy Werners' tarpon finally comes along the boat for a release on 8/4/2012...
This morning, I fished a four hour shark trip with Frank Thomas along with his son Peter, both visiting the area from London, England. We got our fill of action starting with a bull shark in the first five minutes. The action continued throughout the morning with a total of eight hookups and five big sharks boated. Two of the sharks were big lemons caught by Peter that ranged 150 lbs. of bigger! That is a full morning of pulling on some big fish! We are fishing in the shallow bays for these sharks in less than 5 feet of water! Great summer action.
- Capt. Todd Geroy
Naples Fishing Forecast:
I expect this pattern to remain for the next several weeks. Redfish should start making a good showing by the end of the month also.
Target Species:
Tarpon, Snook, Shark
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