Fishing in the Naples and Marco waters in April and May.
Capt. Roan zumFelde
April 29, 2009
Naples - Saltwater Fishing Report
Fishing this month in the Naples and Marco area has certainly been interesting and challenging. Some days you couldn't miss while other days you felt like you were swimming backwards against a strong outgoing tide that would never end. Overall the Tarpon fishing never really materialized at least on fly. We caught a few on bait but it was slow up here. Snook fishing on bait and fly was up and down one day good the next day a struggle. Thank god I have a lot of patience and a never ending supply of places to fish on most days we could scratch them out. Redfish??? What is a Redfish. I think on both fly and bait we boated 6 all month. Every fish but one was oversized.
Fishing this month was definitely a challenge. I fought a pinched nerve that thank god has finally let up and has given my right arm use again. The winds blew if not every day almost everyday. The fish bite was slow except on just about one tide per day. It seemed at one time they would only bite late outgoing then it would be early incoming just did not seem to have a rhyme or reason just if you were there when it was happening it was on fire and if you missed it you might as well of played Tidily Winks.(some will remember) The good news is we were fishing and it seemed that every one that fished this month caught something. Might not have been that 100 plus pound Tarpon that some came for but we seemed to all put some kind of fish in the boat whether it be Snook or a few small Tarpon. Took a number of deep Everglades Creek trips on the New Scandy White John Boat and had some interesting adventures with small Tarpon and big Snook. At least on those trips the wind could be dealt with for my fly anglers. Night fishing was also just ok. Caught plenty of fish but it wasn't slamming. Some of my clients did mange to boat some keeper Snook this month, if I recall we landed 7 or 8 that hit the slot and I am proud to say of my guests that all but two survived to be caught another day. Slot Redfish were non existent as far as I am concerned I think we boated one this month. We did not boat many reds but the ones we caught were mostly over 30 inches. I think the tarpon fishing was the most disappointing . We caught a few small fish but the bigs that I usually fish for just wouldn't do much for me. I fished over some great fish around Naples and Marco but for one reason or another they were tough to get a bite from. I think out of all the trips we jumped a couple over 100 pounds none were boated and we only boated a few in the 10 to 30 pound range. I would guess the hard heavy winds we were experiencing every day had much to do with this. April has always been a feast or famine month for me. If the weather stays consistent the fishing can be very good but if it has many changes you see this up and down affect.
Naples Fishing Forecast:
May just around the Corner. This is one of my favorite months in Naples and Marco. The heavy pressure on the Snook fishing decreases because of the lack of being able to keep one. The fish start hitting the beach in earnest and the passes start to catch on fire in the mornings and evenings. Great month for the Snook you can catch them from the passes into the gulf all the way to the farthest back country reaches. Red fishing will still be slow but you should see a few catches just because conditions will be starting to calm down and the winds become much lighter and sight fishers will be able to see again. Tarpon should get better by leaps and bounds especially if we start getting a little rain. The winds should lighten and the fish should want to roll more which gives us our targets. The other factor is the pressure on the water is much less this month. You do not have any where near the boat traffic you have in April. The only high traffic will be around the holiday. Heat will get more constant and the fronts should lay off. Water temps will finally rise into the 80's and stay there which should light everything up like a light bulb. Get out earl and you catch ratios will rise significantly. Fly anglers in May should start to concentrate there efforts at the passes and the beaches. Some of the biggest Snook of the year are caught in may they are feeding up for spawning and usually bite with fury. Target them with flies that imitate white bait like Pola fibre Minnows. This is also you your last month of good bass fishing in the canals. June will usually slow down on bass but you can still catch Cichlids. Well hope this helps and Good Fishing Capt. Roan z.
Target Species:
Snook, Tarpon, Redfish, and Bass
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