Inshore Anglers Enjoying a Variety of Species Around Naples
Capt. Todd Geroy
May 15, 2011
Naples - Saltwater Fishing Report
Fishing the inland waters of Naples and Marco last week, we enjoyed some great catches of a variety of different species of fish. The focus of the weeks' trips was action fishing and we found plenty.
I fished another trip with the Hotchkiss family with Paul and Tracy aboard last Monday evening. We absolutely tore up the snook in several spots releasing countless fish up to 30 inches. Tracy boated and released a beautiful 26 inch gag grouper in the mix of snook action. Paul went on that evening to release several upper slot redfish as well as some small schoolies as well as trout and some bruiser jacks. After sunset, we found more snook and some baby tarpon feeding together and Paul managed to complete his grand slam with a 32 inch tarpon on light spinning gear. Here are some shots of Paul with several of his fish...
The rest of the week continued to have great snook action particularly early in the day. The action seemed to slow later in the morning as the sun heated things up. We also dealt with some very high tides later in the week which made it difficult to present baits far enough under the cover to get to the fish.
I fished Thursday morning with a local father, son team for tarpon. We worked the outside beaches from Naples down to Marco and we were a bit disappointed not to find more fish on the move. Conditions were good with calm, clean water but we were only able to find scattered single fish and had no luck getting baits in front of them. Before the trip ended, I decided to stop on a little piece of bottom structure just offshore. We boated spanish mackerel to 7 lbs and a couple 3 ft. silky sharks followed by a 15 lb. jack crevalle.
Friday I fished with Terry Hopkins and Lionel Smith of Naples. We started out looking for the tarpon for the first hour or so with no luck once again. We moved into the back and found a frenzy of snook hitting on nearly every cast. As the tide got higher, the fishing slowed down a little, however the gentlemen continued to catch several more snook, redfish and big jacks throughout the morning.
I got word from a buddy that the tarpon really turned on later in the day Friday. It is still early in the tarpon season, and I am sure we have a lot of good days ahead. It is nice to have the option of other species to make the trip.
- Capt. Todd Geroy
Target Species:
Tarpon, Snook, Shark, Redfish
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