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

"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

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

Happy Thanksgiving fishing folks!!!  Our crew of captains, have a packed week of charters for our holiday here on Palm Island.  Last week I had the chance to take a great client out for a few days of Backcountry fishing, throwing artificial lures.  We caught redfish, snook, trout, and jacks.  The cooler water temperature had staged the fish around Creek mouths, and with the falling tide, we concentrated our efforts on the deeper shorelines.  With beautiful weather here in the forecast for SWFL, we anticipate a fun upcoming week of fishing.

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

The October fishing around Palm Island is typically some of the best of the year. Nearshore, we see a seasonal push of mackerel, Bonita, kingfish, and Cobia around our reefs and live bottom. Inshore, we still are catching snook and redfish on our areas flats and Mangrove shorelines. Tarpon are staging on mud flats and deep holes in the upper harbor system. They are fattening up on assorted baits, with the anticipation of winter's arrival. With the shorting of days, and dryer air moving into the region, fish become active and make the fall season on of my favorites, for weather and fish production. It's a great time of year to be fishing in South West Florida!

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

After a crazy week of holiday charters, our summer time fishing is still going strong. The tarpon are still hanging in the passes and on the beach for the early morning bite. Snook fishing around those same areas yielded lots of bites from juvenile fish, that kept the lines tight. Mangrove snapper have moved inside, so any structure that we fish for snook is holding good amounts of some food fish too. We have a low pressure weather system moving into the northern gulf this week. Expect some rain, but buy the weekend we should be ready to go back to fishing. It's a fun time to be fishing in Boca Grande and Palm Island Florida!!!

Capt. Mike Slattery
Palm Island and Boca Grande Fishing Charters

Tarpon fishing in Boca Grande and Palm Island Florida over the last weekend on the beach, was nothing short of fantastic. Multiple groups of tarpon, with 50-100 fish per group. The key was to get out early, and be waiting for the fish to move once the early tide started to roll in. We fished a 10 hour day on Saturday and a 14 hour day on Sunday, between the two days we got more than 20 bites and put 16 fish in the air. There is still "silver" in these "hills"!!!  It's a fun and fantastic time to be fishing in South West Florida!!!

Capt. Mike Slattery
Palm Island & Boca Grande Fishing Charters