Bonito, Trout, Pompano, Snook and Redfish in Naples
Capt. Todd Geroy
January 29, 2012
Naples - Saltwater Fishing Report
Warm, spring like weather moved in last weekend, causing water temperatures to spike 9 degrees in just a few days. I must admit that the sudden change in the weather pattern really threw this guide for a loop as the schools of fish that were holed up during the previous cool week moved out and scattered. The ups and downs of winter time fishing can be frustrating but within a couple days, I was cued in on other action and we had a few really productive, fun trips.
The schools of Trout that we were catching during the last cool spell seemed to completely relocate onto shallower flats in the back bays as well as toward the outside passes. We had the best luck drifting the flats while casting jigs in about 3 to 5 feet of water. Once a fish was hooked up, we would stop the boat and fan cast the area. There would usually be several other fish in the immediate area before we would repeat the drifting process. We took a few Pompano along with the Trout.
As the water warmed up, I did experience an increase in the Snook action. We took several nice Snook to 27 inches during the week. Most were taken on live shrimp pretty far inland in some of the more remote bays.
Don Tilton fishing along with his wife, Denise found this fine winter Snook hiding along the cover of the mangroves…
By mid-week, I had ventured out along the beaches and encounter mobs of Bonito (False Albacore) crushing the bait fish just off shore. I had several trips where we worked the schools of the great fighting fish and enjoyed some fast paced action with these speedsters which ranged from 6 to 10 lbs. These members of the tuna family are aggressive feeders taking artificial baits and flies well. They are capable of blazing runs sometimes peeling 100+ yards of line off the light, 10 pound tackle.
Thursday afternoon, Jay, Tom and Kim wore them out while boating and releasing upwards of thirty fish in a few hours. The trio of anglers had several occasions where they were hooked up on three at a time. I would get into the action and hook a fourth to add to the confusion, ending up putting my rod in the rod holder to keep the fish on while assisting with landing their fish! What a fire drill! We later moved inland to one spot where they continued to catch several redfish.
Here is the crew with one of their triples…
Another shot of Jay casting into the feeding frenzy of birds and Bonito!...
Robert Johnson also enjoyed the hard running Bonito on another trip…
-Capt. Todd Geroy
Target Species:
Bonito, Snook, Redfish, Sea Trout, Pompano
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