Naples Fishing January 2012

Florida Fishing	Naples Pier	Sanibel-Captiva	Naples	Live Shrimp	10,000 Islands	Summer Fishing
Bait/Lures	Kayaking	Techniques	Artificals	Fish On	When to Fish	Where to Fish

	Local Fishing Report Best Fishing Times Tide Charts Local Radar Local Forecast When to Fish -Moon Phase Naples Fishing Charters Public Boat Ramp Bluewater/Keys Fishing Report

Fishing Report: Nice weather, nice water, nice fishing

By LARRY REGIENCZUK Posted January 25, 2012

NAPLES — It was Tuesday morning, and I was fishing the near offshore reefs off Bonita Beach with my fishing buddy Bill Hickman. Nearly calm seas, bright sunny skies, and beautiful clear water made for the best of settings.

In about three hours of fishing we landed (and released) five nice gag grouper, with the smallest being about 20 inches and the other four above 22, with the largest hitting the scales at over 10 pounds. If you have friends or relatives up north, please don't share this with them because they will become depressed.

I know that at some point we will have to endure a cold spell that lasts more than two days, but if we can hold out for a while more we might just transition into spring and start chasing snook and tarpon again! In the meantime, we can concentrate on catching the multitude of species that are available at this time of year. On a recent trip with a group from the Dunes Fishing Club, we counted 14 different species without counting catfish!

Offshore, the cooler water has pushed the red grouper farther offshore, but they are still very willing to eat a bait. The boats venturing out 30 miles or more have been consistently hooking fish ranging from 20 to 29 inches.

As the reds move farther out, the gags are heading in the other direction, as evidenced by the above mentioned catch. Along with the grouper, there are some concentrations of amberjack around certain wrecks, as well as an isolated cobia. Cut sardines, squid, and live pinfish are the baits of choice. Flat seas make the longer runs fairly pleasant.

Ten Thousand Islands: Capt. Rob Walczak was out on Monday with Dwight Walton, and they worked the outside points and cuts using shrimp or shrimp-tipped jigs to coax the bite.

The water was very low and somewhat dingy early in the day, but got somewhat better later as the tide came in. With water temperatures ranging from the low- to mid-60s, the fish were more than willing to take a bait. Reds to 24, and trout in the 13- to 18-inch range were making for tight lines for Dwight. Also in the mix were some silver trout and pompano.

Fishing out of Caxambas Pass on Saturday, I took Jerry Lewis (not that one) and his son out for a half day.

We quickly got into a mess of sheepshead, and ended up with six keepers to about two pounds. Our next target was sea trout, and while we found them willing to take a jig, their size was from 13 to just under 15 inches. A few silver trout came along for the ride, too. We caught trout in a number of spots, but they were all in the same size range. One other thing though, is that everywhere we went we ran into voracious "micro" jacks. You would hook one, and six others would follow their pal to the boat.

Naples/Estero Bay: Ken Strassen of Master Bait and Tackle says that the trout have been spotty in Estero Bay the past week. Extreme low tides and very slow moving water have made for challenging fishing.

Small reds are still being picked off here and there, but the sheepshead run is in full swing, with fish running up to five pounds. The sheeps are around pilings, oyster bars, and rock piles, and will quickly take a shrimp on a lightly weighted line. Ken says there are a few tripletail on the crab pots, but most are small. If you are running the traps, don't be fooled by the yellow-spotted file fish that will also lay behind the ropes leading to the traps.

Down in Naples, Capt. Todd Geroy has been enjoying excellent trout fishing. On a recent trip with Mike and Jill Dyer and friend Dine Angelico, they hooked up with countless trout and sheepshead using shrimp and shrimp tipped jigs. Most of the trout have been in the 15- to 23-inch range, and it was Jill that got the 23-inch beauty.

Early in the morning, the bite was slow, but as the temperature warmed up, so did the fishing. Todd says his anglers are also enjoying the variety of species we have at this time of year, and catches have included reds, sheepshead, black drum, snapper, and even gag grouper.

Offshore: Onboard the "Findictive," Capt. Mike Avinon recently took out a party from the Brooks Fishing Club. The group, headed by Bud Everett, went out about 30 miles, where the red grouper bite was still going on strong.

Along with the shorts, the group put 17 keeper grouper in the box. Then they hit one of Mikes secret amberjack spots and boated a couple of arm breakers, and the icing on the cake was a real nice, 50-pound cobia!

Capt. Ed Nichols took out the Steve Warner party of four for a full day, and they too headed out 30-plus miles to the deeper water that the reds are now holed up in. The reds were in an eating mood, and after all the smaller fish were released, there were four limits of fish, ranging from 26 to 29 inches. That is some haul! Ed says that they also caught mangrove snapper, porgies, and a few king mackerel that were released.

If you have a report to share, send it to captsnookus@hotmail.com

Fishing Report: Low morning tides affecting bays and backcountry

Posted January 18, 2012

Naples - Pinch me! I think the air temperature hit 79 degrees today, and we are in the second half of January. If we can hold on to this nice weather for another four or five weeks, it will be time for spring already.

Even though we have had daytime temperatures to love, the water temperatures are somewhat cooler. Today, all the fish we caught were cold to the touch, and the surface temperature was reading 62 late in the afternoon.

Extreme low tides in the morning have made for some difficult fishing in the bays and backcountry. Even later in the day, the water levels are staying low and getting into your favorite fishing holes may be difficult or even impossible. Slow water movement and cool water makes things even more interesting.

Offshore, the red grouper are still providing good action and quite a few are being invited home for dinner, too. Amberjack are on the wrecks, and if you are lucky enough to be the first boat to get there the AJs will be accommodating. Closer in, catches of short grouper, lane and mangrove snapper are the norm.

Two announcements this week.

First, the Backwater Fly Fishers Club is offering a free workshop open to all interested anglers. You will get instruction on how to tie some basic salt water fly patterns and get a chance for castings instruction too. It will be held on Feb. 10 from 1 to 4 p.m. at Hodges University (located at I-75 and Immokalee Road). Call 239-598-6133 or email cwheeler@hodges.com to register.

Secondly, the Naples Fishing Club is moving the location of their meetings. As of Feb. 21, the club will meet at the Hamilton Yacht Club according to President Mike Flaherty.

Offshore: Capt. Al Coleman went out on Tuesday for a five-hour trip with the Krieder party of five. The "Lisa B" headed out Gordon's Pass and found some good bottom and lines went over the side.

Using cut sardines and squid the group kept busy with short grouper, and lane snapper. A "Bonita Encounter" was the highlight as the speedsters hit hard and took off for the horizon.

Monday, the "Findictive" headed out for a full day of offshore fishing with Capt. Mike Avinon at the helm. Six-foot seas didn't stop the fish from biting, though. After weeding out a bunch of shorts, Capt. Mike put 14 keepers into the box and they ranged up to 12 pounds. After all that it was amberjack time, and Mike was on a wreck and the amberjack were biting. The group boated six that went up to 50 pounds. Capt. Avinon said the water was cool and the water clear, despite the wind.

Ten Thousand Islands: Fishing has remained good down in the islands, according to Capt. Pete Rapp who fishes out of Everglades City. The trout bite is strong, especially during the last half of the incoming tide. Reds have been biting on both sides of the tide and will take a live shrimp.

Reds are running in the 18- to 25-inch range. Sheepshead are also being caught around the oyster bars. Morning tides have been super low, according to Pete.

Naples/Estero Bay: Capt. Steve Nagy says the sheepshead are feeding well around the docks and oyster bars in Estero. A lightly weighted shrimp on the bottom has been doing the trick for Steve. The fish are ranging from the little bait stealers to fish in the five-pound range.

Trout have been in the 17- to 22-inch range, and Steve has found them in the deep cuts early on the tide, and on the grass flats later in the day. He is using a shrimp and popping cork combo most of the time, but also uses a Hybrid Flurry on a 1/8-ounce jig under a cork as well.

If you have a report to share, send it to captsnookus@hotmail.com

Fishing Report: Remember to work the bait slowly when the water's colder

NAPLES — Just as we thought it couldn’t get any better after a beautiful December, along comes a fantastic January. At least so far!

With daily temperatures pushing the upper 70s and light easterly winds, the conditions has been very comfortable. The only negative has been the tides, and negative tides have been the norm for most of the month so far.

Morning charters have had to carefully search for deeper holes while avoiding parts of the bay that are normally well under water, but with the very low tides, petunias are now sprouting. While the water temperatures are nowhere near the very cold water we experienced last year at this time, it has been cool enough to scatter any live bait that was around. Most of the fish seem to have keyed on chasing down crustaceans anyway.

Inshore, catches of up to a dozen species is not that uncommon, without even counting catfish. Flounder, sheepshead, black drum, ladyfish, trout, reds, snook and even lizard fish have been chomping on the shrimp.

Shrimp are being fished in any number of ways. Some anglers are sticking them on a hook and adding a split shot, while others are impaling a whole shrimp on a jig, and another group is suspending them under a popping cork.

One good thing about using shrimp is that there is no doubt when you get a bite because part of the shrimp is gone! As the water cools, so do the fish, and their metabolism slows down quite a bit. That means when you work a bait, slow is the key. The colder the water, the slower you work the bait.

Offshore, the boats are still getting plenty of nice grouper both reds and gags (to be released). Catches of good-sized gags are being made fairly close to the beach with fish up to 28 inches being reported. Mangroves are an on-again, off-again target with some really big ones caught when they are “on.” Geoff Sheppard reported getting a huge 22-inch mang just 10 miles off the beach.

If you can find a good wreck you will likely tangle with the amberjack residents, and they are running in the 25 to 40 pound range and prefer a live pinfish for a snack. School-sized king mackerel are still enjoying are reasonable warm offshore waters and have been responsible for some sore arms recently.

Ten Thousand Islands: Capt. Brandon Acosta fished with Mr. Mazzella and son last Thursday. Hitting a high falling tide they went after some reds and hit paydirt quickly.

Bringing eight fish in the 20- to 23-inch range to the boat, six of the lucky ones were put back into the water. Needing more fish for a good family dinner, Capt. Brandon then sought out some willing trout. For a while it seemed like all of the trout were stunted at 14 inches, but a few keepers were culled.

On Friday, Brandon took out the Sucoff family for a full day. The first few spots had crystal clear water, which means tough fishing. Moving around he found some better water and the group got into a number of snook in the 20-inch range.

Dinner was next on the agenda and the trout cooperated well. For an hour straight the group landed fish after fish in the 17- to a huge 26-inch range. As the tide ran its course, Capt. Brandon next went to some deeper holes and bounced shrimp on the bottom. That yielded a variety of fish, including sheepshead to 18 inches and black drum to 28 inches.

On Monday I fished south of Goodland with Larry Cranfeld and Bill Webber of the Dunes Fishing Club. Our first stop was for pompano, and while we did get two undersized pomps to the boat, it was the sheepshead that kept us busy.

The two anglers caught fish after fish. We ended up with about 10 in the well and they ran to about five pounds. Next we went looking for trout and after a couple of single fish spots, we hit the mother lode. More than 40 trout were landed, and eight went home for dinner and they ranged up to 18-plus inches. Along the way we did manage one keeper pompano and about a dozen different species in total.

Naples/Estero Bay: Mike Flaherty, Charles Contias and Ron Coleman went out Sunday with Capt. Pat Gould for a day of fishing.

Pat said the first two hours were on the slow side, but then they got into the fish. Redfish were the target of the day, and about 15 of them visited the boat before being released. The fish ranged from 16 to 21 inches.

A variety of other species made for an interesting day on the water, including black drum, sheepshead and, of course, ladyfish. Capt. Gould is using a weighted shrimp for most of his fishing, but switches to a tipped jig at times. The water is getting clearer every day.

With the inshore fishing being a bit slow in Estero, Capt. Jason Moore has been working the near shore reefs for snapper recently. Using shrimp he has been consistently nailing the mangs in the 14- to 18-inch range. His fishing is taking place anywhere from 7 to 9 miles offshore, which with the mild winds had been an easy run.

Jason’s anglers have been catching and releasing a lot of legal-sized gag grouper, too.

Offshore: Capt. Tom Robinson said that Tuesday “Was a bad day to be a fish!”

His trip with Jim Pearson and buddies started off with a run to a wreck and when they got there not another boat was in sight. Sore arms quickly developed from fighting the amberjacks, which ran to 30 pounds. All but a couple were released, and then they hooked and caught a nice 38-pound cobia, which would have been the fish of the day except ... a HUGE cobia estimated at 80 pounds ate a bait and worked over the angler for quite a while before smiling for a picture and then being carefully placed back into the water.

After that the mess of red grouper to 25 inches was sort of anticlimactic, but made for one great day of offshore fishing. Oh, and on the way in they got into some schoolie king mackerel that were just the icing on the cake.

Bill Haines and his party joined Capt. Ed Nichols on Monday for a venture offshore, and they were going to target mangrove snapper but very strong current resulted in only moderate success.

Switching tactics, Ed then went to some grouper bottom and they got a bunch of them up to 25 inches and a bonus fish of a 2 1/2 pound yellowtail. They finished off the day using light tackle on schoolie kings.

If you have a report to share, email captsnookus@hotmail.com

Fishing Report: Cooler temps will alter angling outlook

NAPLES — Happy New Year to all and may 2012 be a GREAT fishing year!

After closing out one of the most beautiful Decembers that I can remember since 1992, January has started off with a real bang. We were expecting temperatures as low as the 30s Tuesday night, which will drop water temperatures drastically. Just a couple of weeks ago the water was in the low 70s, last week in the upper 60s and after this front maybe low 50s.

That is some kind of change for our various species of fish, and they will react accordingly. Snook will seek deeper/warmer haunts, while fish like sheepshead and trout will actually school up and make things a little easier for anglers.

Offshore the weekend presented beautiful conditions for those venturing out. Light winds and warm temperatures made getting out a pleasure, and pretty decent fishing was an added plus.

Red grouper, amberjack, snapper and king mackerel were all available and willing to eat if you were in the right place with the right bait. Speaking of king mackerel, this past week the commercial guys brought in about 10,000 pounds of them. That is a lot of fish!

By this weekend the temperature will moderate and we all can get back out on the water without long johns and battery-heated socks. As the wind shifts back to the northeast/east, the water will start to clear up, too.

Shrimp will probably be the ticket in the bait department, and I expect that the pilchards will become rather scarce. Trout season opened Jan. 1 and the bag limit is four fish from 15 to 20 inches (with one fish over 20 allowed). Trout don’t freeze well, so don’t take more than you will eat in a day or two. Enjoy the fresh fish at it’s best.

Naples/Estero Bay: Capt. Todd Geroy states that 2011 ended well and that his fishing trips caught a mixed bag of fish, including redfish, bluefish, trout, pompano, sheepshead and pompano.

After last week’s mild cold front, as the waters warmed back up the tides slacked off. Todd found the reds along the shallow mangrove points, and they fell for shrimp and a light split shot that averaged in the 19- to 23-inch range. Pompano and trout were reliable targets, too, and were caught while working the outside passes and some deeper inside channels that had better tide flow. A 3/8-ounce jig with a shrimp on it did the trick.

Up in Estero Bay Capt. Shane Davis has been using a chartreuse jig head with a shrimp on it to coax bites from a variety of fish recently. Sheepshead, pompano and whiting have been hitting well, and the trout are starting to school up, too. Before this front, snook were a vialble target, but Shane thinks that this cold front might be the end of a great snook year.

Try a popping cork with a shrimp in the shallows as the water warms up this weekend.

Ten Thousand Islands: Down in Everglades City Capt. Pete Rapps said the weekend was fantastic and the warm days really got the fish hitting well.

At the end of last week Pete hammered the fish and caught a number of species, including trout, reds, sheepshead, black drum, mackerel and snook. With Jan. 1 and the opening of trout season, his anglers enjoyed a solid bite on the incoming tides. The highlight of the week was a 22 1/2 pound tripletail caught by angler Jill on Saturday. A really huge “tail!”

Trout and more trout were the target for Capt. Tim Daugherty on Sunday. He took out the Mark Tishbine group and they had a great day. Tim said that the trout were everywhere and fell prey to a twister type tail under a Cajun Thunder that was fished around the points.

“This is the best start to trout season that I remember” Daugherty said.

Most of the fish were easily in the slot, and a few pompano were mixed in. The bigger trout and pompano were caught on a jig/shrimp combo fished on the bottom with a slow retrieve.

Offshore: Capt. Mike Lucas on the “Cuda” took out a group from Island Walk in Bonita recently, and angler Laura from Ironstone Bank said they caught over 100 fish and had a great time.

Capt. Mike went out on Tuesday with the O’Connor family for a half-day and despite challenging conditions they caught a mess of fish. Short gags and reds provided good pulls on the end of the line, as did mangrove and lane snapper. Mike said he saw some kings, but none hit any of his baits. He was fishing 10 to 12 miles out of Gordon Pass and the water was “bumpy.”

On the “Sea Legs”, Capt. Tom Robinson fished a full day on Dec. 30 with Dan Michols and friends. They hit the big gags hard and then went to the reds. Fifteen legal reds were brought to the boat as well as a number of yellowtail snapper (to 15”) and mangrove snapper. Next were the amberjacks, which were arm breakers at up to 35 pounds.

Conditions were super. Catch of the week on the “Sea Legs” was a huge 37-inch, 20-pound gag grouper that was caught by Dylan Robinson on his birthday. Yes, he is the captain’s son!

If you have a report to share, email captsnookus@hotmail.com

New measures protecting tiger sharks and hammerhead sharks went into effect on Sunday.

New laws protect sharks in Florida waters

Posted: Jan 01, 2012

LEE COUNTY -New measures protecting tiger sharks and hammerhead sharks went into effect on Sunday.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission passed the measures on November 16th.

They prohibit the harvest of tiger sharks and great, scalloped and smooth hammerhead sharks from state waters as well as prohibit their possession, sale, and exchange.

FWC notes that the sharks can still be caught and released in state waters and can be taken in adjacent federal waters. Read more

Shark Hunting	Fishing Holes	Angler Techniques	Fish I.D’s.	Fishing Tips	Fishing Knots

How to Find a Guide

Shorten the Learning Curve - Save Money & Time -
More Productive Fishing - all good reasons. Here's one more....

(excerpt from Secrets from Florida's Master Anglers)

Friends and acquaintances are good sources for recommendations, but if none are available for your intended destination, use the internet.

Most professional guides maintain web sites that can be found by Googling the location you want to fish. Organizations such as the Florida Guides Association (florida-guides.com) are also good sources.

"These organizations," says Capt. Tom Van Horn, "hold their members to high standards. Members are required to provide their legitimacy annually."

Proof of a Coast Guard captain’s license, a state issued vessel license that covers all anglers on the boat, marine insurance that includes liability coverage and adherence to a stated code of ethics are some of the things to look for in a qualified guide.

Now here's your part.

Guide #1: Guests should recognize that not every day will be full of fish and aim to share a fun day on the water.

Guide #2: I value clients who discuss their experience and level of fishing skills before the trip. Let me know if inexperienced anglers, small children or special needs persons will be accompanying them. This assists me in planning the strategy for the day.

Guide #3: Patience and willingness to listen is the best virtue of a prospective client. I want to accommodate them in every way. Their willingness to trust me and follow instructions will normally improve the day’s productivity.

Guide #4: I really appreciate it when my clients show up on time and are prepared to deal with the weather and willing to listen and learn.

Fishing Charters

Pocket Guide

Slip Knot

Palomar Knot

How to Knots

Last Month Report

Shark Fishing