Lots of Quality Fish This Week in Naples and Marco Backwaters!
Capt. Todd Geroy
March 18, 2011
Naples - Saltwater Fishing Report
Where do I start this week? We have truly had some exceptional trips this week. The honest guy I am, I admit that one out of the ten for the week didn't pan out as planned. But, that's fishing sometimes. The others were some of the best of 2011 so far.
I'll start with a snook report. I am happy to say that there are plenty of nice fish showing in some backcountry areas where I really have not found good numbers since the fish kill of 2010. We caught several fish this week from the 29 to 34 inch range along with countless numbers of the common 20 to 24 inch fish. Most were caught with live white baits but we also had good luck with them on a fly trip on Thursday morning.
I fished with Andy and Brian Roettger on Thursday morning with intentions of fly fishing for some of the laid up tarpon that have been showing up. We were disappointed to have a northerly breeze which put the fish down making them impossible to sight fish to. Although we saw several rolling in pretty close range, we really never had any clean shots. I promised that we would dedicate an hour at the end of the trip to try to get some snook action or bend the rod somehow. We moved to a bank where I had been having some action during the week and both guys caught a few snook and trout on a white streamer. Taking turns between fish, Andy laid a nice cast under the mangrove overhang and a large snook inhaled the fly instantly! The fish made a hard run under the cover, but Ted managed to turn it and after a tough battle, Andy boated a nice 32 incher!
We also had some amazing trout fishing this week. Several trips got into schools of large spawning fish. Most of them ran between 18 and 24 inches! We caught them free lined live baits. On Wed. afternoon, Ted Noethling brought his 6 hear old son, Tanner out for Tanners first fishing trip. We made two stops all afternoon and one of the two of them were never with out a strike of a fish on. They wore out the snook, big jacks and sea trout! After a few hours, Tanner announced he might be ready to head in because he had already caught "a million" fish. It did seem like a million! Way to go Tanner!
We have quite a few big tarpon in the back country now. I did hook up with a couple this week, but none boated. Large sharks are also dominating the same spots. Cut bait such as lady fish and jacks don't go long without a bite.
On this morning's tarpon trip, we hooked 5 bull and lemon sharks to 200 lbs. less than 4 feet of water. A couple of kayakers paddled up to us to ask what we were fighting. They inquired "what are you catching?" When I said it was a shark, they asked "what, 1 or 2 footers?" I said, "No it's about a 7 foot bull shark", Those guys couldn't paddle out of there fast enough! Great fun!
Lastly, I can't leave out the redfish. While I got distracted with other options as the week progressed, We did find plenty of eager schoolies early in the week using bait at high tide. They are in the larger bays now and south facing shorlines with oyster bottom are holding them.
-Capt. Todd Geroy
Naples Fishing Forecast:
More of the same!
Target Species:
Snook, trout, tarpon, sharks.
More Fishing Reports:
