Well fishing folks, its looking like Spring has sprung early hear in South West Florida! We are seeing pollen from our pine trees and white butterflies in the air. That means tarpon season is right around the corner. As a Florida native and now a fishing guide hear in the state, there truly is no more exciting time of year than spring!  The tarpon will begin their seasonal migration, all set to congregate on our areas beaches and passes come the month of May. If you or anyone you know has their mind set on fighting a silver king, now is definitely the time to start planning. We offer 4hr, 6hr, and 8hr trips; along with travel packages that include lodging at a barrier island resort.  Please visit our website for more information, and don't let another season pass you by without your shot at this iconic gamefish.

Capt. Mike Slattery
941-626-6946
www.palmislandoutfitters.com
www.charlotteharborchronicles.com

Happy New year fishing friends!  2019 started off with a bang in South West Florida. We had absolutely fantastic weather over the holidays, and most of our guides took advantage of the slick calm seas to fish some of our nearshore waters. Their clients were delighted with bent rods and a mixed bag of reef fish. Catches included sheepshead, snapper, grouper, black drum, and grunts, with some groups lucky enough to add a triple tail or two.  

Our backcountry fishing has been slower to rebound after the redtide.  In most of our bays dock fishing has been the game. This approach has yeilded black and red drum, sheepshead, snapper, and snook. The guids that can chase further up the creeks are finding some larger redfish and nice numbers of trout.  

It's a beautiful time of year to visit and fish South West Florida!

Capt. Mike Slattery
941-626-6946
www.palmislandoutfitters.com
www.charlotteharborchronicles.com

With a week of calm winds and flat calm seas, our Capt. have been taking advantage by fishing the nearshore reefs and wrecks.  Snapper are preparing for a late summer spawn, and are in good numbers around structure inside 9 miles. Trolling these reefs can produce, barracudas, king mackerel, Bonita, and sharks to name a few. Inshore, our bite slowed a bit at the beginning of the week due to a slight bout with red tide. But, we have saw the fish moving back into their typical format later in the week, and all seems well again along the South West Florida coast. It's a fun time of year to be fishing around Palm island Resort Florida!!!

Capt. Mike Slattery
941-626-6946
www.palmislandoutfitters.com
www.charlotteharborchronicles.com

Snook sequence from the water today with Capt. Mike Slattery. Giant snook are gathered up for a late summer spawn here in SW Florida. These fish will feed hard in the coming weeks to fatten up on protein. Call today to get your trip in the books 1-844-289-0741.

Tarpon Fishing is in full swing on the South West Florida coast.  Multiple bites per hour are not uncommon if conditions are good. Being early June, big female breeding fish have arrived throughout our area.  A 6 hour to 8 hour trip should afford our anglers the chance of landing a fish of a lifetime.  Tarpon up to 200lbs. are common pre spawn in mid summer.  Inshore, snook fishing is about as good as it gets.  Giant snook have gathered for a late summer spawn.  These fish will feed hard in the coming weeks to fatten up on protein.  We take extra caution with these big female fish, as they are so very important to our fishery.  As always, it's a great time to be fishing in South West Florida!!!

Capt. Mike Slattery
941-626-6946
www.palmislandoutfitters.com
www.charlotteharborchronicles.com

We had an action packed #tarpon weekend here at Palm Island Outfitters! If you've ever wanted to check tarpon off of your bucket list, call Capt. Mike today and we'll make it happen. A handful of dates are available for the rest of the season, call today!

Call: 1-844-289-0741
E-mail: palmislandoutfitters@gmail.com
Rates: www.palmislandoutfitters.com

With this holiday season arctic blast, our fleet of local guides have been catching up on some house chores.  With low temperatures dipping into the 30's we may need a drill and auger to fish this week.  All kidding aside, these types of temperatures do not happen frequently in South West Florida.  The best approach coming back from this cold, is to concentrate the fishing focus in the deeper channels of the bay and creeks.  Slow rolling a jig across the bottom or fishing dead bait should yield some bites. 

The nearshore fishing will need some time to come back, the old commercial fishing formula is: how ever long the wind blew, it will take the same time to lay down.  So in other words, if it blew North for 3 days, it will take 3 days of East winds to calm and clean the waters.  Even though the cold weather is here, it's still a great time to be fishing in South West Florida... But just wait for the warmer weather next week!

Capt. Mike Slattery
941-626-6946
www.palmislandoutfitters.com
www.charlotteharborchronicles.com

With a slight change in the weather over the Thanksgiving holiday, we are changing up our game inshore.  The bait has thinned out a bit as expected with the dip in bay temps.  With this seasonal change, we bolt on our jugs and turn our attention to the deep tidal sand bottom channels in the bay.  We focus our casts along the edges of the grass finger bars and edges of the flats.  This technique affords us the ability to catch a multitude of species, even in the most undesirable conditions.  The idea is to get your bait to the bottom.  This will typically yield a variety of inshore species.  A few that are a bit more desirable are, pompano, flounder, and trout.  With catch rates typically high using this technique, it a great time to be fishing in South West Florida!

Capt. Mike Slattery
941-626-6946
www.palmislandoutfitters.com
www.charlotteharborchronicles.com

Florida's fall season has heated up this past week.  We have had absolutely beautiful weather, with lows in the 60's and highs in the low 80's.  Our bait has been plentiful, which allows us to explore the fishery with a fun approach.  Inshore, our snook fishing is still going strong.  Keeper fish have been caught the last 2 weeks. 

Nearshore, our triple tail Fishing is outstanding.  Amberjack and Cobia along with Gag grouper are being caught throughout the are on our artificial reefs.  There are also kingfish, mackerel, and Bonita crashing through the bait schools just off the beaches.  It's a fabulous time to be fishing in South West Florida.

Capt. Mike Slattery
941-626-6946
www.palmislandoutfitters.com
www.charlotteharborchronicles.com

The first cold front of the fall season has come and brought a second one with it.  With morning air temperatures in the low 50's, our bay water temps have plummeted. This moved my hand into a winter trend last week we'll before I had intended to do so. This means moving off the flats and Fishing jigs in the deep sand channels of the bay.

There are a wide variety of species that forage through these tide troughs in the winter months. The notable ones are, pompano, flounder, trout, and mackerel.

Nearshore, our seasonal crab pots have been deployed for stone crab claws.  Running the trap lines is one of my favorite things to do in the cooler weather months, for a shot of a laid up triple tail.

Combining these two different techniques of Fishing makes for an action packed day on the water, with the chance to take home some really good eating fish.  It's a great time to be fishing in South West Florida!

Capt. Mike Slattery
941-626-6946
www.palmislandoutfitters.com
www.charlotteharborchronicles.com