With warmer than typical air temperatures this month, our inshore water temperature has sky rocketed!  With that, and calmer winds last week, conditions set up for a good few days of inshore fishing this weekend.  Our good clients the Neimishine's, got a good look at an early spring school of redfish. These fish will push into our bays and flats as the water temperature continues to increase, flooding out of the creeks hungry and looking to feed.  This is a great time to go fishing in South West Florida!!!

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

With winter cold fronts on the weekly basis, we fisherman in South West Florida are in the depths of winter... Honestly, with all joking aside, it's cold in Florida.  So, that gives us guides a chance to fix some gear, do maintenance on the boats and trailers, and get geared up for the upcoming spring season.  Our clients should be doing the same... This is the time of year we start booking our Tarpon fishing slots for the Spring-Summer season. So, if you have ever wanted to make your Tarpon fishing dreams a reality, now is the time to contact your most favorite guide, and ink in your day! Tarpon season is on the horizon, and that fishing friends, is the most exciting time to fish South West Florida!

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

The Christmas cold weather had our local fishing fleet turning towards winter trends over the holiday push. Inshore jig fishing for pompano throughout the bay produced good numbers of fish.  Trout, lady fish, blue fish, and mackerel are all by-catch and keep our anglers busy during drifts.  Nearshore, our sheepshead have started to gather on our areas artificial reefs.  Bottom fishing with cut and live baits, is a great way to fill a cooler with some food fish during your stay in South West Florida.  

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

With December cold fronts now coming in weekly, we might have done our last bit of snook fishing for 2020.  We saw bay temperature at 65 degrees this past weekend, but we were still able to manage a few "linesiders".  The deeper grass and sand bottom channels of the bay, will hold more of the fish inshore, with cooler temps. Redfish, pompano, trout, flounder, lady fish, and mackerel can all be caught inshore during our winter months.  Nearshore, our triple tail fishing has kicked off with a bang.  Every trip we went on last week, yielded keeper fish.  It's a fantastic time to go fishing in South West Florida!

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

The cold fronts this fall will begin to drop the water temperature in the Gulf of Mexico.  This will begin to push our seasonal benthic fish south.  Cobia, kingfish, Black fin Tuna, and triple tail will be our target species naearshore for the month of November.  Inshore we will start to see some of our hot bite snook fishing start to tail off with cooling temperature.  But, we begin to jig fish our deeper sand bottom channels and target pompano, trout, and flounder.  Fall season is a fantastic time to go fishing in South West Florida!

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

"Our fall weather has arrived in Florida".  That phrase is a local joke here in the state.  Because, the only true change we really see is, water temperature starting to decrease because of all the rain.  Other than that, it's still pretty hot throughout the state.  The fish don't seem to mind at all, because they really enjoy our fall season and some cooler water.  The snook fishing has been just plain good inshore.  We are really starting to see our redfish stocks locally bounce back a bit.  Still not like 2016, but we are catching some while snook fishing shorelines throughout the bay.  It's a fun time to go fishing in South West Florida!

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

Nearshore fishing is getting going for fall.  Gag grouper, mackerel, kingfish, and Bonita along with the usual mixed bag of snapper are being caught around our nearshore reefs and ledges.  Captain Matt Glass fished a group last week out of Palm Island Resort, and produced some great eating fish on a half day trip.  It's a fun time to go fishing in South West Florida!

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

Offshore fishing this time of year in the Gulf of Mexico can be fantastic.  From 5-30 miles into the Gulf, we have a mix of artificial reefs, and ledges, along with "live bottom" out "deeper".  In the deeper water,big red grouper are the target species, while we also snapper fish in these areas too.  Mixed bags of lanes, yellow tail, and mangroves make up the common snapper species offshore.  It's a fun enjoyable experience, to catch your own fresh fish dinner for that evening.  It's a fantastic time to be fishing in South West Florida!

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

The rain in the month of August has started to cool the inshore water temperature.  That has triggered the snook to start transitioning from their summer spawning groups of 100+ fish, to start breaking up and moving into fall haunts, for a influx of bait and cooler water temps, as the days begin to get shorter.  We are already starting to see schools of redfish gathering on our grass flats inshore. On some of these big water summer tides, you can find reds gathering in big groups under some mangrove shorelines, lots of "chumming" will get them to come out. For a late summer and early fall bite, it's a fun time to be fishing in South West Florida!

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

The fishing in South West Florida is on fire. Inshore snook, redfish, and trout are being caught daily, fishing deep edges on lower water, and shorelines and oyster bars on high tides. Nearshore, the kingfish bite has been the best we have seen in 3 years. Bonita, Cobia, and Blackfin tunas, are also being caught on the nearshore reefs and ledges. Tarpon have moved into the area's harbor and bays, and have begun to stage in Boca grande pass for their spawning season. Fishing followers, there has literally never been a better time than right now, to go fishing in South West Florida.

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