I am hoping we are done with cold fronts for the year. We have had temperatures in the upper 70s to mid 80s for the past few weeks and hopefully it will continue to warm up. I am expecting an early tarpon season. We have already seen quite a few tarpon, and hooked a handful of fish. As the temperature in the Gulf of Mexico reaches 78-80 degrees, we will see the big schools of migratory tarpon start to appear off the barrier islands of Sanibel and Captiva. Tarpon are my favorite fish to target in the area. I will begin targeting tarpon almost exclusively on fishing charters starting in mid April.
Recently, we have been mostly fishing for snook. Snook Fishing has been very good around Sanibel. Redfishing has been good as well, but requires a further boat ride to northern Pine Island Sound to get into the good fishing. Booking a 3/4 or full day fishing charter allows us to target a variety of species in a day. Most of the snook fishing is done with live bait, in creeks and around mangrove shorelines. Redfishing is done primarily on grass flats and they can be caught on lures as well as natural bait. There have been plenty of trout, jacks, ladyfish and other species around that I have used to entertain kids on fishing charters as well. Here are some memorable catches from the last few weeks.
