The fishing has been good so far this January with fairly good quantities of fish and good variety of species.

I've been using alot of jigs lately. The Cotee split tail in root beer installed on a red 3/8 oz head has been very effective lately. Snook, reds, trout, pompano and other species have liked it. I always tip with a piece of shrimp for smell.

Our super low early morning tides have congregated the fish in the sloughs and troughs and can make for some good action. Trout, pompano, whiting and redfish have been biting on those early lows.

The water has been slowly warming along with the air temp so we've been starting to fish some of the passes and outside bars catching a few pomps and bluefish.

Deep in the backcountry snook are active along with a few reds and the snapper bite has been good.

I'm taking resis for tarpon season which is just around the corner. For fly fishing I do full day trips out of Chokoloskee fishing Everglades National Park and for the spin anglers we have good tarpon fishing around Naples and Marco Island in the back bays and by mid May into July they'll be a good run off the beaches.

Give me a call to book a trip.

Capt. Mark Ward
239-450-9230 c

Jack Carew and his grandson with a couple of nice backcountry reds.