NAPLES FLORIDA FISHING REPORT

December  2005

Offshore

Fall fishing is our favorite time due to the wide variety of fish available at this time of year. Red grouper have gone on their annual fall feeding frenzy and gag grouper are now stacked up on the inshore ledges and wrecks.

The grouper fishing has been so good lately we have had time to spend fishing live baits over wrecks for larger trophy fish. Recently we have boated several cobia in the 50-60 pound range and large smoker kingfish are also being caught in large numbers using this technique. Jewfish (Goliath Grouper) are feeding as hard as the grouper and can sometimes become a nuisance eating the fish you are catching.

For the folks who live to troll the fishing has been red hot. Limits of small kings and Spanish mackerel are being taken on trolled spoons and feathers. For those more patient we have anchored and chummed the fish to the boat and then caught them by casting bucktail jigs into the school.

We have also taken a number of night charters offshore to catch limits and double limits of mangrove and yellowtail snapper. Some of the mangroves have been over seven pounds. These fish are being caught on live and frozen shrimp on light tackle.

Back Country

There is loads of bait in the area right now and the fish are loving it. Redfish are being caught in large numbers in the pass and along the groins and jetties. Trout season is closed right now and they must know it because every little creek or inlet seems to be full of hungry speckled trout.

If you can obtain live thread hearing catching snook around docks and mangroves is very easy right now. We have caught several snook in the 20-pound class. Tarpon are around but not very active in taking baits. There are record numbers of jack crevalles around however to take their place. Catching one of these bulldogs on a light-spinning rod is a thrill not soon forgotten.

We will soon be moving into our winter patterns and that will cause changes in our fishing patterns. More next month about how the holiday season pans out.

Captain Allen

Everglades National Park & Key Biscayne
By: Captain Tony Traad

October has been a pretty good fishing month with, for the most part, tropical weather. The back country of Flamingo has been picking up and will continue to get better as the water levels in the glades continue torise during the wet season.  Concentrate on fishing the shallow bays that have the algae growing in it for redfish and some snook. Hit the points that have wind and/or current on them for snook as well.

The deeper channels and creeks have also been very good. I have been fishing them using finger mullet and shrimp. You should fish the finger mullet on a float as well as put one down deep via a troll-rite or knocker rig. I have been catching plenty of snook and jewfish this way. I have also been catching a lot of redfish with shrimp rigged on a troll-rite. As the water temperatures continue to rise, stick to the
deeper water & under the Mangroves!

On my most recent trip, we stuck to the deeper channels and creeks using these methods and caught a dozen snook averaging 30 inches and
approximately 30 to 40 redfish. We also caught four jewfish between a few pound and fifteen pounds. Have a great August and fun
fishing.


Tony
Capt. Tony Traad

Everglades National Park & Key Biscayne
by
Captain Tony Traad 


Between all the hurricanes and traveling, it has been a while since I've been able to sit down and type out a fishing report. As you can imagine, August and September found Florida under a constant state of hurricane watches and warnings and those months were slow for business.  I spent more time putting up and taking down hurricane shutters than I spent on the water.

October in the Everglades National Park has been a good month and things seem to be getting back to normal.  I traveled to Venice Louisiana for the I.F.A. Redfish Tour thinking that the tropical storm season was over and found myself fishing the two day tournament in the middle of tropical storm Mathew.  My partner and I had a tough tournament, the storm blew out all the spots we had scouted and we found ourselves trying to scout new spots in unfamiliar water in the mist of a tropical storm. Needless to say we didn't do so well. We did manage to catch our four redfish; however, they were small fish and didn't help us much. We placed 45th out of about 117 registered boats. Congratulations go out to those teams who managed to find big reds and place well in the tournament. It was not easy fishing and doing well was no small task.

October has brought the bait into the Everglades. Lots of bait from pilchards to mullet are being hammered by tarpon and snook out on the beaches and in the East Cape Canal area. Dr. Linda Robinson of Miami took a day off from the emergency room and came fishing with me. We fished the creeks in and around East Cape Canal and caught a few reds and a couple of nice snook. We then fished the mouth of East Cape Canal for tarpon. The tarpon were slamming big 12 inch mullet. We hooked a half dozen or so tarpon but never got one to the boat. We did hook something very big that we never managed to lift off the bottom. I figure it was probably a big jewfish.  Ron and Donna Krell of Tallahassee came down for some fishing and we spent our first day fishing in the glades. We cast netted some live bait and drifted off Middle Cape Beach for tarpon. The tarpon were crashing bait all around us. It was the old story of there being too much bait and it took some time for our baits to be found and eaten. We had several fish on and caught one nice tarpon in the 60lb range. After tarpon fishing, we fell back into the creeks and caught some nice redfish and snook

The next day Ron, Donna and I changed pace and hit South Biscayne Bay for bones and permit. We found lots of bones in big schools all day long. We caught one and had several break off on mangrove shouts. At the end of the day we headed out to broad creek and found plenty of big permits. We had one on but lost him. The total number of fish actually caught was not impressive but the total number of fish seen was. It's been a while since I have seen several thousand bones in one day and that's about what we saw.
Dr. Richard Goldberg of North Carolina brought his pal Amery from Paris France fishing and we headed into the glades. We hit the beaches and East Cape Canal area. I found plenty of bait and tarpon again in and around Middle Cape. Amery caught his first tarpon ever weighing between 70 and 80lbs. Amery fought the tarpon for about an hour before boating it. When we returned to our spot, the tarpon action had quit. Although the bait numbers seemed to be about the same as the past week or so, the tarpon numbers appear to have dipped some. Despite the dip in tarpon numbers, there are still plenty around to fish for; it's just not a ridiculous amount of tarpon. We fell back into the creeks after that and hit several spots catching a red here and a red there until we hit our last spot. That's when the fishing really got good. In our last spot we caught 16 snook ranging from small to large, about 20 to 25 redfish in the 2 to 6 pound range and several medium sized black drum.  All in all, October has been a good month to get out and fish with plenty of bait stirring up action and the tropics are finally quit.

Until next time, get out and go fishing.

                                                                            Captain Tony Traad

 February 2004

Despite over a dozen cold fronts so far this winter Gulf temperatures are averaging slightly above normal in the Everglades. We’ve measured temperatures as high as 72 degrees in the backcountry and we’ve seen  a few tarpon already in the creeks down south. The snook were on the bite yesterday morning just before the front came through, the low rising tide seemed to get them moving, there weren’t a lot of them, we sighted a dozen or so, but our best fish was a 32” snook on fly. In general, you need to catch the waning high pressure, the stable weather after the front moves through. The south wind can be very productive at this time of year if the weather is steady and be ready for that snook bite when the front is approaching.. We’re still sighting red’s on the oysters when the conditions cooperate and there’s usually a few snook mixed in. Over the next month we’ll be watching for tarpon, hunting snook and redfish and there will be lots of trout in the grass beds , spawning sheephead, pompano and mackeral. Let’s go fishing!

Capt. Ned Small
 

December 2003

Sight fishing is excellent as a result of clear water.  The Redfish are chewing aggressively and can be found tailing  on the first 1/4 of the incoming tide.  Snook are also eating well during warm prevailing winds. 

If you are not to particular...we have Trout and lots of them.  Pompano, Sharks, Bluefish & Macks can also be found  schooled up on grass beds in 2-4' of water.

Travel deep into the everglades and Snook and juvenile Tarpon can be found way up into the rivers.  On the same day; Jacks and Largemouth Bass are also a possibility in the jungle like waters.

Have a Happy Holiday Season,

Capt. Ned

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