Naples & Marco Island

New Fishing report Naples and Marco Island for July 7

Happy Fourth of July fisherman and what a glorious week of fishing it has been.  Snook fishing is as good as I have ever seen it.  Tarpon are running in the passes and off the beaches.  Small Tarpon are scattered all over the back country.  Redfish are scattered on the flats and outside bays from Naples to Marco and beyond.  That’s just inshore.  Offshore there are Kingfish, Permit, ungodly amounts of Snapper and a host of other species to catch.  

I haven’t had much down time this week, fishing night and day.  My clients have been taking full advantage of all the good fishing to be had.  I have mostly been fishing fly but I have had a couple of bait days this week.  Catching bait hasn’t been a problem.  The only problem with the bait catching is getting the right sized bait for the fish you want to catch.  There are lots of small baits witch work fine for Snook and Snapper, but the big bait you need for the Tarpon has been a little tricky.   When you get it, it is almost a sure thing.   The head pin after sun up has been the most productive for big baits.  Fly fishing the passes has been awesome also.  We have been just tearing the Snook up.  Lots and lots of small ones but persistence has been paying off with some nice fish in the 30+ inch range.  Oh well if you have to catch 10 or 15 smaller ones before you get a bigger fish worse things could be happening.  Tarpon are mixed in with them and we are occasionally hooking those too.  One note for the Gordon Pass Fisherman.  Fished it last night and lost 3 nice Snook to Sharks on the hard outgoing tide.  These were big Bull Sharks they were easily 8 to 9 Footers, please be careful when releasing your fish and swimming near the passes.  This is the first time this year I have seen the big sharks show up, and I hope the last.  It makes your clients a little uneasy to see a shark half again as big as your boat  eat a fish right next to you. 

Talking about offshore, we had a great morning last week.  Took two guys out to a near shore wreck in my new Sterling Flats boat which rode beautifully I might add.  Caught two 30 plus pound Permit on crabs.  Chummed up False Albacore, Kingfish, Spanish, and Cobia for the Fly fisherman, caught all the species on both fly and bait.  Even sent a couple of baits deep and caught some nice Snapper.  I hope this never ends.

Next weeks fishing should hold about the same.  Great Snook fishing and Tarpon all over the passes.  In the back country the big Snook are showing up in schools after there spawning and the small tarpon are coming out of the creeks on the falling tides.  Don’t forget this weekend is the CCA Redfish Tourney out of Calusa marine in Goodland.  Please come out and enjoy a day of Red fishing and test your fishing skills against some of the best local fisherman in the area.  Good luck and Good Fishing.  Roan z.