Great Winter Fishing in the Backwaters of Naples Florida!

Another busy week as we round the corner to the end of January.  Last week was a productive week overall on both boats with myself and Capt. Ben having success on a number of species and the action picking up from the previous week or so.
We both had good success with redfish on several of the trips.  Most were caught at high tide and took live shrimp either free lined under the mangroves or with a small split shot attached.  Most were keeper size, ranging up to 24 inches.
Trout fishing was pretty good  for me, I managed limits on a couple trips while fishing outgoing tides in channels near shallow flats.  Live shrimp were the bait of choice.  Typically, we have good success this time of year with jigs, but the trout have been a bit picky, only taking the shrimp.  In the same areas, we enjoyed some fast action with bluefish to 5 lbs. and some large spanish mackerel to 5 lbs.  Also a good number of pompano and even juvenile permit.

Large spanish mackerel were just one of over 15 different species caught last week with Capt. Todd Geroy

These small permit put up a great fight on light tackle…

Friday, a cool front had come through bringing a drastic change to the temperature overnight.  I headed out with Bob and Scott and hit the deeper creeks to avoid the chilly wind.  We sat in two spots for several hours and had continuous action with large black drum, snook, redfish, sheepshead, snapper and flounder.  As the morning progressed, the lack of sunshine and cold wind had gotten to us and we returned to the dock an hour early to clean fish and thaw out.  Finally the sun broke through as I returned on the afternoon trip and again found a mixed bag of drum, sheepshead, flounder, some nice sea trout and a couple of permit.

Black drum are scrappy fighters and provide great aciton on a chilly day. Not bad on the plate either.

Another busy week ahead of me and I am looking forward to some great winter fishing in the backwaters!

Capt. Todd Geroy