Up and Down Fishing in the Naples and Marco Waters in October
Capt. Roan zumFelde
October 7, 2009
Naples - Saltwater Fishing Report
Fishing in the Naples and Marco waters has been up and down and all around for the last of September and it seems to be continuing into October. We are catching fish especially Snook and Snapper but few of the Snook are keepers. Good concentrations on most days, then you have a difficult day thrown in to keep you honest. Red fishing has been here today gone tomorrow. Find them one day and the next you struggle. Tarpon in the passes in the mornings have been consistent but hard to target after that. Catching a few small ones in the back country but only one or two per trip have been falling to flies and Jerk Baits. Fly fishing at night has been good for Snook on small flies and I have been catching some on the outgoing on shrimp patterns. Still few keepers have been hitting the boat. Seems like we have a great number of 26 and 27 inchers along with quite a few 34 and 35 inchers around. Not that it matters to me most of my clients practice catch and release and I would rather eat Snapper than Snook. I hesitate to tell you about all the fish I am seeing on the beaches because everyday I go out there is a big question mark. I fished the beach 4 days in a row, two days I found hundreds of Snook Schools of Black Drum a few Redfish and large numbers of Pompano. Two days same conditions and could hardly find a fish, very strange. I am also finding fairly large schools of small Permit. They are smaller than the fish I have found in years past but in higher concentrations. Running about a pound to a pound and a half small and feisty. They are falling prey to small clouser type flies and bonefish patterns. Something different. Tough to spot but when you do see them they are fairly easy to get to bite. Not something I would want to spend all day doing because they are small but kind of cool to throw into a morning of catching Snook. I like to use a 20 pound Shock for them because I am throwing the same flies to the Snook cruising the beach.
Naples Fishing Forecast:
October fishing will be a question as usual. Transitioning fish will be hard to target. It seems we are going to have warm conditions so the bait should stay around last year we had bait into January. If we do have some early fronts it will wreak havoc on the bait and you will have to transition into a more cooler weather pattern. It looks like we are going to have some good fishing though the way it has started and in the long range forecasting if you can believe them. Bait is up and down the beaches and Snook are heavy in the passes yet some will be moving inside some. Redfish will be in and out and you will find them in there usual places and some will be deep in the channels. Tarpon will come and go check around the highest concentrations of bait. I will be fishing some trips into the Everglades this month into the deep Back country. This is a good month for the Everglades Slam: Bass, Snook, Tarpon, and Redfish. Lots of freshwater bring on the availability of Bass into the mix. Bass fishing in the canals should get better this month especially if the rain slows down and the weather turns a little cooler. Catching a few right now but should get better. Will be running some more Bass trips this year than last year I have some new clients that want to start fishing them, should be fun. Offshore fishing will start to get pretty good also should have some early kingfish runs and Cobia will probably make and appearance. Don't forget Traps went out this week and that means we can start looking for Tripletail. Hope that works out better than last year. Good Luck and Good Fishing Roan z.
Target Species:
Snook, Tarpon, Redfish, Snapper, Bass
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