This area’s spring tarpon run is world famous, as the tarpon move in along the coast and up to Boca Grande Pass for the yearly spawn. What many people don’t realize is that there is also a fall migration, and that seems to have started this past week.
For the first few hours of light, it has actually been quite pleasant out on the water, but after that, it is just too darn hot.
Southwest Florida anglers continue to find productive fishing on most all fishing fronts. Our offshore waters, from 60-feet out, have and will continue to offer some nice size grouper intermingled with several species of snapper that include mangrove, lane and yellowtail. The trick of it all is finding keeper size fish. Naples Fishing Club member Ray Russell sums it all up in his recent e-mail.
August typically means light east winds, calm mornings and plenty of snook and tarpon. Unfortunately, this past week, whatever rookie weather god was controlling the conditions in this area must have been oblivious to this August tradition. There were blustery west winds, morning storms, rough, dirty waters, and the snook and tarpon were about as common as condominium sales.
We catch little fish. But before that settles in as an absolute truism, allow me to introduce some relativity.
I couldn’t find any local guides who were dedicated enough to fish through Fay on Monday and Tuesday, so I called a few fish that I know personally, but they too were still boarded up.
The big question in most fishermen’s minds this week is how the local fishery is recovering from Tropical Storm Fay, and the answer is a surprisingly positive one.
The recreational harvest season for snook opens in all Florida waters on Monday, Sept. 1. Anglers may keep one snook between 28 and 33 inches total length daily in Gulf of Mexico, Everglades National Park and Monroe County coastal and inland waters until the season closes in these areas on Dec. 1.
Someplace between the tropical storms and the hurricanes, snook season opened last Monday, and it was probably a very good opening day, at least for the snook.
As I write this article a major hurricane is approaching Cuba and if all goes well for us it will move into the Gulf of Mexico and go north just clipping us.