Ft. Myers - Offshore

Fishing in Mud Greetings; Well you can say one thing about the weather, it keeps you guessing. I have made only one run well offshore in the past ten days but the inshore areas have been producing well due to the easterly wind keeping us in the lee. Running from ledge to ledge was how I spent our day out early this week. I started at twenty miles and worked our way out to thirty five. We caught a ton of fish. We released over fifty grouper at one spot. Back at the dock . Our tally for the day was four gag grouper to ten pounds, twenty mangrove snapper to six pounds, one goliath grouper at sixty pounds. Toss in some grunts and trigger fish for fun too. All but the goliath came in on fifteen pound spinning gear. I had netted scaled sardines and threadfin's in the morning that produced most of our fish. Inshore is where I spent most of my time fishing in mud. Yes, or mud's. After catching bait in the mornings I have been working around muddy looking patches for rolling tarpon. When I see one or two, or even mark them on my recorder, I either drift or anchor up and chum. In these we have been catching sharks of all sizes and getting a few tarpon hookups. Some days the tarpon have been hot some not, but there is generally a bite good bite at some point if I stay patient and enjoy the shark action. We also have been picking up a few cobia and spanish mackerel on our live baits as well. I spent one morning in the pass. On the way out I spotted a very large tarpon roll so we drifted, trolled, and anchored in New Pass. Using live silver mullet we jumped six tarpon, releasing three to one hundred twenty five pounds. Take Care & Have Fun, Capt. Rick Featherstone