My personal favorite, the tarpon, have been rolling in the back bays and some big laid up tarpon have been found in the Everglades National Park. These are not part of the spring migration but are most likely resident fish that have felt very comfortable lately with water temps reaching the 70’s.

 Mel Segal caught three redfish on fly last Saturday morning in the Marco Island area. Working an extremely low incoming tide with EP minnows, he landed fish up to 28 inches. A few snook and ladyfish helped complete the trip.

 Frank Chumley and his nephew, Stewart, enjoyed excellent action earlier this week. Using RipTide soft plastic shrimp, they landed over 20 trout, 4 redfish, and 8 snook.

 Another notable trip came with Chris and Cory Quillen. Together they landed several small snook, jacks, ladyfish, sheepshead, a big black drum, and jumped two baby tarpon.

A warming trend began recently with temperatures reaching the mid 70’s or better every day in the past week. This weekend there will be a mild front but it should not wreak much havoc. The water temperature has been on the rise and that has really translated in moderate but improving fishing.

We have been catching some reds in the skinny water using dark flies or Riptide Realistic Shrimp. Bob Markel caught couple on a dark variation of a Borski Craft Fur Shrimp during a couple afternoon trips recently. 

Snook still seem to be small for the most part but a few hogs are finding their way onto shallow shorelines when the sun warms them up. With the recent weak tides, the water is moving slowly and has been warming up faster. This doesn’t make the fish feed any harder but they become more comfortable and an accurate cast can fool them.

 The trout fishing has been very steady. Limits of trout are there for the taking. Rootbeer colored soft plastics are effective in clear water. When the wind is blowing and the water clouds up, I have switched to bright colored bucktails tipped with shrimp.

We have been experiencing up and down days for the most part recently. Hard to put a finger on the inconsistency other than to just lump the past couple of weeks in with most winter fishing trips. Sometimes the bite is hot and you can wear out the trout, pompano, redfish, and others. Sometimes I will run from spot to spot begging for a sheepshead or snapper to pick up a bait.

Ran into a nice school of black drum this week and caught them over the course of several days. These drum school up tight on the coldest of days and then spread out as it warms. Large, live shrimp rigged with a Hookup jig is my preferred way of catching them.

 Trout bite is pretty solid on the incoming tide. Limits of keeper trout can be had over most of the grass flats on the outside of the 10,000 Islands. Normally a soft plastic disciple, I have done very well lately using hot pink bucktails tipped with shrimp.

 Speaking of soft plastics, I have been using Carolina Lunker Sauce as an attractant on my soft plastic baits. Spent a couple of days doing a little research with them and it really seems to work. Unlike most fish scents, this stuff is not oil based and it actually bonds itself to the plastic. More scent on the bait means more bites. I will continue to experiment in the future.

 Fly fished on Thursday and caught a real mixed bag. Snook, snapper, jacks, trout, and grouper. Early morning outgoing tide had the redfish on the move but placing the fly in the right spot was challenging for the anglers. I highly recommend that if you go fly fishing in the salt, you practice making casts with a minimal amount of false casts. Game fish in shallow water don’t always hang around for you to wave the rod back and forth to gain line. Get it moving and shoot it.