Feast or famine. There has been a combination of both, typical for July fishing. Water temperatures are very high. The best bites have been on days when heavy rains have fallen off the coastline and cooled the water a little.
The nighttime snook bite has been great. Artificial lures outperform live baits if worked properly. Multiple snook have been caught on every evening outing. The 12 Fathom "SlamR" and the 12 Fathom "scarface shrimp" have been great offerings to these sundown snook. It is the closed season so the fish we are catching are fought up quickly and handled gently before their release. Some areas have had incredible numbers of snook this summer. But areas to the north, the numbers are considerably less compared to the bigger numbers in years past.
George hadn't had much success on his own, so he wanted a lesson in targeting inshore fish. On a lethargic feed that morning, he had 5 hookups with redfish. There were other strikes but they were not very aggressive and just weren't taking the entire lures in. He really enjoyed the experience and was encouraged when I told him that he would see a lot better results on days when the fish are more aggressive.
Ron and Scott introduced Tom to kayak fishing. Ron and Scott are getting very good at catching redfish and snook. Tom, a business associate in from Colorado Springs, had a few hours available to get out and try out the fishing here. Tom caught a stout redfish and he was also hooked up to a snook that went haywire and kept digging in trying to get to the mangrove shoreline. The battle ended like so many others who hook up to their first snook. The fish broke free but I did enjoy the look on his face during the encounter. It's a look of terror and excitement combined in one.
One morning about five days ago it was one of the "feast" situations. One large snook and 10 redfish were caught in about a 45 minute period of time. The fish were stacked up with the massive mullet schools at the beginning of an outgoing tide. The clear-gold 3" Fat Sam Mullet produced hookups to redfish on four consecutive casts.
The next day, with the same conditions it was a complete bust. Marco L of Tampa worked the lures perfectly, negotiating the floating grass very well but the fish simply wouldn't eat. He managed to catch a few trout tossing lures around the bait schools in deeper water for a little action but the shallow water bite was dismal that morning. It was kind of that way for Chad, who caught one redfish at sunrise and then things were tough the rest of the morning.
Pat Flammia got in to one of the better bites with 8 trout on 12 Fathom lures and this 32 inch redfish
Pat had previously caught some upper slot redfish but he had his hands full with this one.
Jason G brought his father out for a kayak fishing experience. Again, great conditions for a lot of redfish to be caught but the fish simply weren't cooperative. Attitude is everything sometimes. They enjoyed the location and probably wouldn't have cared if they didn't catch a thing. Moving out to where there were small birds diving on bait, they started getting strikes. Jason has the technique mastered. His father also had it figured out and he had one of the largest trout of the month clobber his lure right next to the Ultimate Native boat. Jason, the proud owner of a new Ultimate Native 14.5, will become a fantastic angler in the near future.
If you see someone keeping a snook, report it: 888-404-3922. You may be eligible for a reward.
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