Fishing the past few weeks has been exceptional. Snook, redfish, bonita, mackerel, pompano, trout and other species have all been had. I’ve been mainly using live white bait or pilchards as they are some times called but have also had success on some recent fly trips.

Snook seem to be bigger on average than in recent years. The snook have been in the passes, still along the beaches and are now being found in the backcountry. Late November is getting late for beach snook but had a trip recently in which we had a east breeze and a fairly high tide and we caught numerous snook up to 25” using white flies and pilchards. The snook in the backcountry are holding in some of the deeper holes with good current. Some spots are better on the incoming tide and some are better on the outgoing.

Redfish have been prevalent in all sizes up to 30” with the average being about 20”. Again, live shiners work but we’ve also had luck with shrimp and jigs. The Cotee root beer swirl tail is a long time favorite and continues to work well. I’m finding reds in different spots. Some are shallow shorelines with minimal current, others are deeper holes with current. As always I like to move around a lot until I find the fish.

Sharks are thinning out in the backcountry although we did catch a 6’ bull last week using cut jacks and mackeral.

Pompano and trout have showed. Jigs are the norm but bait and flies can work also.

Going forward the fishing will continue to be good. As we get deeper into winter we'll have to negotiate the cold fronts but that's the norm for winter.

Give me a call if you’d like to book a trip or just talk fishin’.

Capt. Mark Ward
239-450-9230