The fishing the past month has been great.

Snook are along the beaches, the passes and I'm starting to find them in the backcountry also. Redfish are becoming more prevelant as we near the fall redfish run and baby tarpon are fairly common although can be tough to get to bite. We've also had some late summer shark fishing. Bull sharks are the most prevelant with fish between 4-6' the most common. In addition I've been having good luck with the pompano along the beaches. Pompano is not normally a target species this time of year but they were skipping near the boat this past week so we started fishing for them and have had good luck with nice size fish. There’s also lots of jacks and ladyfish around which we’ve been having fun catching with the kids plus we can use them for shark bait.

I've been using a mix of flies, live bait and artificials depending on the clients. For flies I've been doing best with the white deceiver although the EP bay anchovys have been working in chartreuse and white. For live bait I've been throwing the net at the Naples head pin and catching small thread fins as well as white bait. For artificials I've been using white and chartreuse jigs tipped with shrimp for the pompano and crystal minnow plugs for snook and reds.

September is a great time of year to fish. The reds should move in in good numbers, snook are fattening up for the winter and the fall tarpon run should start.

Capt. Mark Ward
239-450-9230 c

Below are some pics from a recent charter with Frank Visconti and his kids Cole and Christian.

Nice Bull shark

Cole with a snook

Goliath grouper

Christian with a big ladyfish