Snook fishing in February!
Capt. Todd Geroy
February 12, 2012
Naples - Saltwater Fishing Report
February 12, 2012
I fished a solid week of 10 half day trips last week and dealt with a myriad of weather conditions as it seemed to change each day, sometimes throughout the day. We also had some very good trips throughout the week although on a couple, the fish just weren't cooperating at all. Anglers aboard my boat caught everything from some trophy sized Snook to Redfish, Sea Trout and Pompano to big Sharks and even one brief hookup with the first Tarpon of the season!
Snook fishing really picked up last week as the water temperatures reached 74 degrees in the back waters. I had several guests boat beautiful Snook ranging to 14 lbs. Usually unheard of during the month of February. We also boated and released plenty of smaller Snook along with them. Live sardines have been plentiful and I have been cast netting them fresh each morning by the thousands. The Snook eat them like candy!
Here is a photo of Jay Sandza with one of several that he and Tom Iverson battled on Wednesday afternoon…
Sea Trout fishing was good on the afternoon outgoing tides. We caught some nice Trout on live sardines in some of the deeper channels well inland. They ranged in size from 16 to 22 inches. Chumming with live baitfish got them worked up.
Redfish were scattered more than I expected. Usually the high tides that accompany a full moon such as last week bring my favorite conditions for finding them schooling. We did have some success, catching some nice keeper sized fish; however they were not schooled up. We kept on the move targeting key pockets along the mangroves at high tide and managed some quality fish.
I continued to see more large Tarpon moving into the back bays. On Friday mornings' trip, we decided to spend the last hour trying for a hookup. We found a few fish working in a shallow bay but were not able to get the Tarpon to bite our allotted time. We did hookup to a big shark that took us on a SW Florida sleigh ride for a while! It ended up biting through the 100 lb. monofilament leader after giving us a thrill. On the afternoon trip with another group, we gave it another shot. This time we did manage to put a 100 + lb. tarpon in the air for a few jumps. The first hookup of 2012! And it's only the first week of February.
Capt. Todd Geroy
Target Species:
Snook, Trout, Redfish, Tarpon, Sharks
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