Inshore.

The snook bite in the morning is phenomenal. It is not uncommon when fishing with live bait to catch upwards of 50 fish in a couple of hours. They are all over any kind of structure out on the beach. With many to found in the cuts just inside of the passes. On the outgoing tide fish for them along the beach of the passes themselves. When I target these outgoing tide fish I like to throw a shad rap. Though any bait fish imitation should work.

Red fish, once the day starts to heat up these fish are heading for the mangroves. As mentioned in a previous report, fish cut bait right up under the trees for the best results. If you get out early there are good fish to be had on the edges of the sand and oyster bars, try the Berkly gulp jerk shad here. I use pearl white when the water is clear and root beer colors when it is tanic from the rains.

Trout are feeding well in the cool mornings and evenings as well. Though I don't particularly care for these fish as food once the waters gets hot like it is now. Their meat seems to get mushy. Still very fun to catch and release though. Fish a top water bait such as a zara puppy shallow early in morning. We have even been catching a few while targeting redfish early in the day. As the shallow water warms up the trout head for the deeper grass flats. DOA shrimp or a Mission Fishin jig head tipped with a Gulp Swimming mullet catches fish once you find them.

Tarpon action is great. Boca Grande is full of fish, and they are eating hard on this full moon. I look for these fish to start to leave the pass though, with very few left by the time the next new moon gets here. In addition to the pass fish though, now is when you start to find the 40 to 60 lb fish in the boat basins. Nothing beats a good sized pilchard to entice these fish. Also keep a good look out when you are out on the flats, out of nowhere can come a pod of these smaller tarpon rolling and feeding on the schools of bait fish.

Offshore, there are great reports for Dolphin being taken in the 80 to 100 foot depth range. I ran a trip out a couple of weeks ago and my guys limited out on the Dolphin, though they were all 'chickens' they bit great and tasted better. I have also heard rumors of yellow fin tuna coming in as close as 40 miles. We did not get into any of those though we did get on some nice Amberjacks at the box car reef, as well as big barracuda at the Boca Wreck reef site.

Fishing it may not be everything, but it is darn close to it!
Captain Tim Mills
941-270-6172
http://www.dhatldoit.com