Late in the afternoon we went out to Naples beach to do some fishing for Snook. The plan was to go Tarpon fishing at sunset. Plans changed though....

The remnants of the latest tropical storm where dumping rain on Naples so fishing prospects where not that good. At 5.00 pm we headed to the beach anyway to see if something was going on. The wave action had picked up considerably and the water had a green murky color.
As we walked the beach we scared one Snook out of the through that ran parallel to the beach. It was funny to see the Snook scooting off into the deep over a couple of inches of water as it ran over the sandbar.

I had no hits in the shallows. Suddenly breaking fish and birds in the deeper water over the sandbar got my full attention.



Feeding birds and fish, the right combination.

I immediately headed out into the surf and launced the fly into fleeing bait and feeding fish. Michael who was standing further south on the beach was doing the same. The fish and bait where everywhere. Every cast yielded a fish. It was crazy. In the shallows small Jack Crevalle and mixed size Ladyfish where feeding. Further out Spanish Mackerel where jumping out of the water.

Before my vacation to Naples I was given a couple of surface flies from a local guy who runs the Dutch saltwater flyfishing site http://www.bassflies.nl. Fish where biting like crazy so I tied on the first expiremental fly, a large chartreuse/red gurgler. With this feeding frenzy going on it did not really matter what fly one would use. The fish loved the gurgler.
It was not long before I both had caught Jacks and Ladyfish on the gurgler. Taking pictures was risky since every now and then a couple of large waves would break over the sandbar.



The gurgler got the OK from the fish.

Test pattern nr. 2 was a popper. It too was devoured by the Ladyfish and Jacks. I just had to throw it out into the deep water and move it a couple of times before it got intercepted by either a Jack or a Ladyfish.



Poppers where on the menu too.

Well, I guess Maria from Everglades Angler was right when she said fishing would be good in the rain.
We stayed on the beach untill it got dark and fishing activety slowed down.
We did not even count the number of fish this day. It was crazy.

Marcel,

I really enjoy your reports and pictures. I'm sorry that you will be leaving Naples almost at the time that I will be arriving. I'm hoping we will hook-up for some fishing when our visits coincide. Meanwhile, I will be submitting some posts and photos of my explorations while I'm in Naples.

I've been fishing for Eastern Brook Trout and Salmon lately and I thought you'd like to see a Brookie in spawning colors....nature's paint brush! I hope you have good fishing during the rest of your vacation.

Nice brookie. Maybe you can give me a nice picture of a brookie one of these days so I can put it on our homepage at the fish species page.

If all goes well I will be back next year same time, maybe we will meet then.