Trout- We are still getting a good trout bite, catching some decent fish. The bigger 'gator trout' are coming very early in the morning, or late in the evening. Look along grass and sand edges, anywhere the depth increases by a foot or two immediately after coming off a sand bar is where we are finding them. There is a good chance you will find a red fish or snook cruising these same areas.

Red Fish-Most of the schools of fish I was on early in the year have busted up. Still picking up a couple here and there by concentrating on the oyster bars of Turtle Bay and Bull Bay. The grass flats around Bokellia and Matlacha have some nice schools of fish on them. The water there is crystal clear making a super stealthy approach a must. Too much noise from the boat and you will not get with in casting distance of these fish. With the FLW tour coming to town this weekend the pressure on all the red fish will increase. A good way to beat the odds is to set up and fish an area that you have caught red fish in the past. I like to take a small to medium sized bait fish with a small split shot about 6 inches above the hook. Before casting I use a pair of scissors to cut the tail off of the bait, then pitch it into a sand hole and let it sit!

Snook! Yep the bite is red hot. Look out onto the grass flats 50 to 100 yards from the mangrove lines. Fish a live bait under a cork and use some patience. If there is a good snook in the area she will find your bait. I watched a 38 inch fish sit in a hole and look at a bait under a cork for almost 5 minutes before she eased up out of the hole and ate. But in the end she ate.

Offshore the King Fish and Spanish mackerel bite is very strong, there has been some big fish taken 5 to 7 miles out. Capt. Dave Marone of Englewood has been getting into some decent shark fishing near shore structure. Landing a 200 lb plus hammerhead last Sunday. He told me he thought he might have gotten into some bigger fish except that his chum slick kept getting crashed by boats. If you see a boat set up and the water looks a little shiny or 'slick' behind it, please go around the front of the boat so as not to crash another fisherman's chum slick.

Tarpon! Oh yeah, they are starting to show up. We jumped two the other day while snook fishing around Cayo Costa. I have also heard reports that a few fish have been hooked in Boca Grande already. Looks like it is shaping up to be an excellent Tarpon season. Reports are also coming from Tampa Bay, Capt. Bryan Elkins told me the other day that they are catching Tarpon around the sky way with regularity.

Get out and go fishing, it will ease your mind.

Captain Tim Mills
941-270-6172
http://www.dhatldoit.com