May Fishing Offers Quality in Naples Backwaters
Capt. Todd Geroy
May 9, 2015
Naples - Saltwater Fishing Report
One of our favorite months to fish here in SW Florida, May has not disappointed so far. This is THE month to tackle some of the biggest, fiercest shallow water gamefish that the inshore waters have to offer. Tarpon, snook and redfish have all been bringing tight lines and smiles.
The tarpon have been in full swing after a bit of a setback a little over a week ago as several days of windy weather along with some strong storms stirred things up. Since last weekend, waters have settled and cleared up and things have returned to normal.
A majority of the action with large tarpon has now shifted to just off the beaches and along the shoals outside the passes. While I only did one trip targeting the big tarpon last week, my anglers preferred to target them with fly. We did not get hooked up that morning, but we did get some amazing shots at several groups of fish in gin clear water and a couple follows. Still a thrill for the fly fisherman up for the ultimate saltwater challenge.
During the last few days, my clients on each trip have had a blast with the juvenile tarpon in the backcountry bays. We have had numerous hookups on all trips the last few days. We have boated several of these chrome plated battlers which are my very favorite fish to catch on light tackle.
Snook fishing has remained good as we are still catching and releasing dozens of snook in the 20 -24 inch class on each trip. We have also encountered some big spawning females running to 40 inches. On Thursday morning's trip, I fished with Jack and his son-in-law Westie from Colorado. The guys enjoyed some wild baby tarpon action with a couple of doubles hooked up as well as others. Jack shows one of the tarpon before release...
Westie joined the 40" snook club with this beautiful fish...
We have caught some very nice upper and over slot redfish all week long. Friday afternoons trip brought some very high tides making the snook fishing very difficult, but the redfish made up for it. Ted and Tom boated several big redfish from 26 to 34 inches while pitching live sardines along flooded shorelines. Tom also managed to boat a tarpon and a couple snook completing his "Grand Slam".
A great wrap up to a fine week of fishing!
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