July 15- July 17: Much of the Same

July 20, 2016 - Posted by Steve Dall July 15- July 17: Much of the Same Weather & Tides… With mid to late morning high tides this weekend, with strong falling tides in the afternoon, look to hit your favorite backcountry hot spots early enough to get back before the afternoon thunderstorms become an issue. As the weekend progresses expect the tides to strengthen with the approaching full moon on Tuesday of next week. Pack plenty of bottled water this weekend as the proverbial “Dog Days of Summer” are certainly upon us with heat indexes rocketing past the triple digit mark. Inshore…. The linesiders continue to be the story throughout the region with some absolute giants being caught for our area. Reports from area Captains and savvy anglers are telling tales of a good mix of numbers and bigger females on large live baits such as a smaller ladyfish, big threadfin herrings and turkey leg sized mullet. These baits are being freelined with some weight added depending on the strength of the tide. With the nice incoming and outgoing, look for these bruisers to be pinned tight to cover much of morning each day this weekend while focusing on areas with slightly deeper water to them, such as the many passes with deeper walls. Some of these walls such as Dismal Key Pass have select stretches of shoreline that have undercut banks and some of the bigger fish in the region will lazily wait for a live bait offering to float by with the tide. The area beaches from Cape Romano north to Naples have great water clarity and with the incoming tide in the morning this week, look to the first trough that runs parallel to the beaches as your starting point if you are seeking some beach snook this weekend. Keewaydin is still producing numbers with the bigger fish coming off Cape Romano and the sandy outside areas south of Jack Daniels Key. Those anglers hurling artificials this week should have some 4-5” swimbaits, some walk-the-dog topwaters and a selection of soft plastic jerkbaits in natural hues rigged weedless with 1/8 to 1/16 ounce weighted extra wide gap hooks Redfish are still taking cut baits and with the higher tides in the morning hours this weekend, this would be a great weekend to hunt some redfish down. Given the warm water temperatures, be sure to be patient when using the cut baits as the scent is the trigger and takes a bit of time to marinate. A simple ladyfish chunk on a 2/0- 3/0 circle skipped into your favorite, shady redfish hole will get the job done. Offshore Good reports of evening and after sunset mangrove snapper in the northern portion of the region, with fish taking a variety of cut baits. Get the chum slick going with a nice chum block and bring those fish to you as the sun sets. There are some very nice gag and red grouper still being caught throughout the region in 50-70 feet of water on the normal cut baits, such as threadfin herring, pinfish and squid, but the savvy offshore guys that are finding active schools are getting them fired up with vertically jigging metal jigs. Until next week, tight lines and screamin’ drags…. Captain Steve Dall