February Fish Report

Fishing the Backcountry in February was good eventhough we had many days of negative tides and access was limited due to higher than normal North winds.

Indiana George caught his first seatrout and snook on fly while casting in high wind conditions. He caught 25 plus seatrout, ladyfish and Jack Crevalle and of course his first Snook…good job George.

Billy and Lee traveled from Virginia and had a couple of good days catching seatrout and ladyfish and snook on fly. For lunch, I crossed Boca Grande Pass in heavy winds and we ate “Cheeseburgers in Paradise” at Cabbage Key…always good food, service and great views. On the way back to Boca we made one last stop at a Mangrove Island and Billy hooked a big snook after a great cast..After the initial hookup the fly rod parted in two pieces, and the snook headed for the Mangroves…With Lee’s help grabbing the tip section and me lipping the snook, all ended well with big smiles!

Chad and Scott Whitlock from Mass. had a good day, eventhough windy, catching seatrout, ladyfish and a few Burr fish. We had non-stop action for a couple of hours on Seatrout and ladies… We then poled the shoreline flats in search of snook and Redfish…. High winds made casting difficult but Chad was up to the challenge and connected with a large snook and fought it for a few minutes and finally brought it boat side where I missed the lip and unbuttoned about a 30” snook!! He proclaimed that everything was okay…..but all of us know the feeling of missing the Big One!….. As a Guide.. the feeling is much worse…..

Scott along with grand daughters Piper and Pierce had a spectacular day spinfishing for seatrout and ladyfish while grandpa Scott fly fished….The girls put on a show with each of them managing double digits. Not bad for a half-day trip.

Spotted a couple of Tarpon in transit to
Cabbage Key….Waiting to see the Backcountry white Butterflies soon which are a harbinger to the arrival of the Silver King…..

Tight lines,

Capt. Al

January 2023 fish report

January was a challenging month with cold daytime temps and water temp in low 60’s some days. North winds at 20-25 added to difficult conditions. We did manage some warmer temps and water clarity was excellent for sightfishing and…add good fly casting…and Voila!! Because we had “Negative tides” it was pretty easy to find tailing reds in less than a foot of water while poling slowly…

Dick G. got a 30” red sight fishing in the rain and 62 degree water. The cast was excellent…. as the fly landed and fell to the bottom the Big Red dashed 25 feet to grab the offering.. and , game on!

Buck P. from Texas had the same experience…well placed cast, soft landing and the eat was imminent….

Greg from Oregon left the cold river waters fishing for steelhead and had a great day catching big snook and Redfish. Tide was outgoing and fish couldn’t ignore big Shrimp pattern….Seems most steelheaders are very good casters!

We did see many Snook over 40 inches but never got a really good shot at them, they don’t get that big being stupid…

We did some searching for Triple Tail outside but they just weren’t around and conditions on the outside were much rougher than the calm bays of the mangroves in the backcountry.

Looking forward to February fishing around Pine Island, Boca Grande and Cayo Costa….Also, did spot a couple of big Tarpon rolling…but no shots at them…

Weather is just going to get better and better and so if fishing.

Tight Lines

Capt. Al

December Fish Report

After the effects of Hurricane Ian in October and November, there wasn’t much fishing done as the rebuilding of property became the most important aspect of life. Eventhough I did venture out to look and prospect for fish, dirty water and floating debris made it impossible…

December fishing was descent with catches of trout and some redfish.

Al Jaeger and his son Wayne had a great day of catching 55 trout on spin gear.

Weather was perfect and obviously fish were eating. We fished DOA shrimp under a splasher and it was game on all day.

John Fosholt enjoyed two days of good fishing catching seatrout, mackerel and ladyfish. He is an accomplished fly fisher who travels the world in search of game fish.

FLy fishing was excellent for seatrout and redfish with many great days in the backcountry. The water is gin clear and sightfishing is the best approach for success. Brush flies in yellow and white, chartreuse and beige produced the most strikes. Water was low, never getting above a foot in depth most days which made poling the skiff essential.

The water post-Ian is pretty much back to normal but the landscape shows the signs of major wind damage. The Red Mangroves are starting to turn green once again and all should be well in the coming months.

The one lesson we all learned is that Mother Nature is THE supreme force .

January has already started out great sightfishing with flies. Presentation is key!!!

Look forward to fishing with you..

Stay well,

Capt. Al

Keith with a nice Jack

Buck makes great presentation and gets the eat

September 2022 fish Report

“ Diverse is the best word to describe fly fishing and spinfishing this month.

We fished Charlotte Harbor, Boca Grande and Pine Island and caught more than a dozen different species including.. Permit, Redfish, snook, Jack Crevalle, Barracuda, Seatrout, Tarpon,Mangrove Snapper, Gag Grouper, all on fly.

Spinfishing was also super for these different species.

Higher daytime tides gave us the ability to explore many more Mangrove Islands in the Backcountry resulting is some super fishing. We found schooling Redfish and when approached with care…i.e. No noise.. is was possible to get a nice quiet cast off which generally resulted in a solid hookup. We did manage a dozen reds one afternoon on fly.

Snook fishing is on fire casting to the Mangroves with the right baitfish imitation. Accuracy is paramount to your success, small openings and outer points require fairly precise casts for a hookup..which were many and everyday.

Seatrout on the outer bars was good staying in a little deeper water using clouser minnows.

We also caught and landed Gag Grouper fishing inn the Bokelia area of Pine Island…quite a rare catch. Brad Harrison manage Gag Grouper to 22 inches and many Mangrove snapper as well as Redfish, Snook and Seatrout for a Backcountry slam..Nice Job Brad!

We try to leave early in the morning and get in by about noon if weather gets to warm, we always have plenty of water and gatorade aboard and I will pull up the bimini top if it rains or you just want to take a break and have a cool beverage….and relax… Remember…You are on Vacation, so have fun and enjoy the sights of rolling dolphin, manatees and 178 different bird species, sharks, rays, and so much more.

List of Flies you could bring..

Chartreuse/white clouser#1-2

Beige/white clouser#1-2

Brush flies #1-1/0

Redfish Sniper#1/0

Mullet style baitfish patterns#2-1/0

Spend the day casting to Mangrove Islands in the Backcountry catching snook, redfish and seatrout and enjoy the great outdoors.

More photos are available upon request.

Stay safe and well,

Capt. Al

June fish Report

Ryan Siddons and Brandon had a good day casting to cruising Tarpon We had great shots at many fish but tarpon were more interested daisy Chaining than eating. We decided to head to the backcountry where both Ryan and Brandon got Backcountry slams…. trout, snook and redfish plus some bonus Jack crevalle that showed up…. Pretty good for two guys that are Experts on Tennesse rivers and only see trout.

Tony and Elaine traveled from Scotland to fly cast to the Silver Kings of Boca Grande. We started early and had shots at a few Tarpon but no eats. Tony had a nice 130lb tarpon on last year which was attacked by a 14ft Hammerhead right at the end of the fight after 45 minutes, and was eaten… The memory was fresh in our minds as we continued the hunt… We had several fish turn on flies but no takes…We were fishing on a super full moon the night before which had a lot to do with their behavior …

Terry Byce decided to fish the backcountry instead of chasing silver and had an exceptional two days. Being an excellent caster he was able to put the fly consistently where the snook and reds feed and the result was about 20 nice snook to 30 inches, nice redfish to 32inches and many seatrout, all in all he completed 3 backwater slams… Two great days of fly fishing… Nice job Terry!

June was a good month with very big daytime tides and plenty fish to toss feathers at. Jim Labelle jumped three fish in an afternoon and all three broke off…as we decided to get the bite by using 12lb bite tippet…. It was the most fun he said he had ever had fly fishing. I agreed, what a blast!

There are still some Tarpon around as we head into July….they will be more receptive to flies and we will have plenty of hookups eventhough there may be fewer fish. The Tarpon have spawned and are returning with an appetite…. Bon Appetite!

Stay safe and well,

Capt. Al

April fish report

April fishing has been excellent with higher daytime tides and dying winds[finally[

There have been many good catches including John Hoder catching many snook and a 20” seatrout…

Randy Starr caught day and night snook and his first Redfish on fly..congratulations and great casting. Conner Starr, a new flyfisher, connected on his 1st night snook and several others. Good Job Conner

Stewart Allan caught speckled trout, ladyfish and a rare Bluefish…Grandpa Allan caught trout and ladyfish on a very windy day.

Tosh Vance and Shep both caught trout, ladyfish and Shep go his 1st snook on fly…A great day of joking and frivality!!

California Dave and wife Sherri had great day on the water catching trout, ladyfish, snook. Dave got a big night snook..also…

Alex and Molly had a good da catching Snook, seatrout and Molly got a Flounder…

The month continues as we are tossing flies at rolling tarpon almost every morning….Looking for the first eat!

Exciting time of year and tarpon fishing will just get better and better….

Till next report,

Stay safe,

Capt. Al

January 2022 fish report

Pictured is Sam Parker who enjoyed a good day of fly fishing catching a 26” seatrout and an unexpected Gag Grouper…The day was overcast with North winds at about 20mph, but good casting overcame adversity. Steve Melinowski also had a decent day catching snook and another big seatrout. Jason Cribbs of Colorado and friend Ross from Tampa also connected on numerous seatrout and Big ladyfish throughout the day. With low tides and clear water we cast to many snook over 40”s and redfish which cruised the outside flats, but they simply did not move to the fly as water temp was close to 60 degrees. So they just huddled together in their ski parkas and didn’t move! Still great to see fish that big while poling along.

Fishing the beach was difficult as North winds blew constantly everyday. We did have shots at Tripletail but fly casting was almost impossible.

Looking forward to February and hopefully warmer weather, better tides with moving water and lighter winds out of the South and East.

Great to see White Pelicans, Brown Pelicans, Plovers, Kingfishers, Osprey and some big Blacktips cruising in two feet of water..the wildlife that we see on a daily basis is astounding.

Stay well and get to the water..

Capt Al White

January 2022 fish report

November 2021 Fish Report

Fly fishing in November was an adventure with variable weather conditions everyday, cold fronts, north winds made up most days. Although weather conditions weren’t the best we did get out of the wind and into the backcountry when tides permitted and found outstanding sightfishing at the lower tides. Redfish and snook cruised the shallows lazily foraging for food. A well presented fly was almost certainly taken every time. Water temps were 62 to 69 and the bars were warm and comfortable for them. We watched 30 inch reds and 35inch snook languish in small depressions on the flats. There were many good days, out of the wind which aided in fly presentation.

Flies that were accepted readily were Al’s shrimp and small baitfish patterns in beige/white and white/olive. top water crease flies also caught fish if stripped slowly.

Spinfishing was also good using DOA shrimp in Gold color. Topwater contributed to some nice Redfish if the cast was made close to the Mangroves.

Weedless rigs and 5 inch jerk baits skipped under the mangroves also produced some nice reds. With the shorter days I recommend half-day trips and concentrate on quality time on the water as to tides and wind conditions.

Beach fishing is good for Mackerel and Kings…both of which eat flies with a vengeance. Hopefully False Albacore will show up in December. They are a blast on an 8wt fly rod…!!!

Looking forward to December….. Never get tired of watching the Dolphin, Pelicans and Manatees, Sharks and other wildlife…. Nature is amazing!

Tight lines,

Capt. Al White

Chris with nice snook

Barry with nice redfish….Beige and white baitfish puglisi size 4

September fish Report

September brought high daytime and water temperatures which made fishing early morning paramount for success. Water temp was 87-89 degrees and as a result fish sought colder hangouts and their metabolism slowed down significantly. Leaving the dock about 6:30 and returning between 10 and 11 am was the answer to having success.

We started to see moving schools of redfish on the high incoming tides in the backcountry and moving slowly poling along to get in position we were able to land quite a few nice reds between 23-27 inches. EArly morning Snook bite was good as they pounced on small Cuban Anchovy patterns in size 4. Most of the 40 snook caught were 14- 17 inches although we did manage about 5 over 22 inches and topped out with a beautiful 26” lineside.

Mangrove snapper were also pretty easy to catch on the small baitfish patterns.

We probably landed close to 100 of them for the month. They have to be 10 inches in length to keep and we caught probably 4 or 5 legal fish, which were released.

TARPON were cruising around in Charlotte Harbor staying mostly in the 20 foot holes. We did manage to hook two silver kings using 550 grain shooting heads and a Black feathered tail Seychelles special…overall length of fly is 7 inches.

Overall fishing was good with no signs of Red Tide in the Harbor.

Beach fishing was iffy at best. October should bring some False Albacore into shore if water temps get down in the mid 70’s along with Spanish mackerel, for some serious rodbending experiences. Trout fishing was on fire for the lattter half of the month . Doa paddle tails {Brown with chartreuse tail} worked well.

Early October has been good for snook in the early-mornings so far. Water temps are approaching high 70’ at present….

Fishing will improve this month with different species to target…One of the best months of the year…

Go out and bend a rod!

Capt. Al

June was one of the best Tarpon months in years. Every morning glistening silver could be seen, sometimes for hundreds of yards from the boat, and sometimes as close as 10 feet. During the month we jumped quite a few fish on fly, but not nearly as many as normal.. The fish were nervous and acutely aware of their surroundings and anything in the water that wasn’t normal… There was an influx of sharks this year which had something to do with their demeanor. These sharks were not the common everyday bulls, hammerheads and sandsharks, these were bigger and more predacious than usual. There were instances in the pass of Bull sharks actually attacking Hammerheads! Many instances of sharks at the boat were common. We encountered the largest bull I have ever seen in these waters while we fought a triple digit Tarpon…The massive beast was at least 400lbs and 10 feet in length. He charged our tarpon which was about 30 yards from us. We backed off the drag on the fly reel and our fish eluded him somehow. We brought the fish to boat which was about 110lbs and released her and she swam away in good shape….Lots of fish on the beach usually means that fish have evacuated the pass generally caused by turbid or dirty water caused by high winds… if the Tarpon can’t see the sharks, they will leave for cleaner water for survival….Tarpon are at the top of the animal kingdom vision- wise.

We didn’t fish a lot of backwater but when we did had great days catching snook, redfish and seatrout along with some nice Jacks. It is difficult for some people to get interested in fishing for smaller fish when there are 100lb plus fish 5 minutes away!

Larry Rector and his sons Fisher and Raymond all did well in backcountry with Larry and Fisher getting their first snook on fly Raymond caught at least 50 different fish including seatrout and snook. Fisher got a backwater slam with his first snook, redfish and seatrout on fly. The Rectors also caught 5 tarpon while night fishing…..They tore it up!

Sam Adams from Maine had really good shots at Tarpon on the beach and had a couple of follows but no eats. He is an excellent caster and was able to put the fly where it needed to be even in heavy winds….We also saw many sharks that day.

June was an exciting month just wish the fish were as excited! After 18 years of guiding here in the Boca Grande arena, I have never encountered this Tarpon behavior and having talked with 30 other guides and comparing notes, we all agreed that these fish were on-guard most of the time…. We will figure it out in advance of next year…!!!!

Thanks for checking out the fish report and hope to see you soon,

Capt. Al White

Boca on the Fly

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May Fish Report

May was a month full of promise and yet somewhat disappointing. Tarpon didn’t hit the beach until well into the month. Fly fishing was hampered by horrible winds which naturally blew the wrong way and made fly casting difficult, yet we had some great shots at the Silver Missiles but fish simply were not interested in eating….Most captains I know were simply shaking their heads in disbelief…

There were many bright spots during the month with great shots at Tarpon.

Chuck Stone and Jason and Jimmie had many shots at passing fish but no hookups…Jason and Jimmie did manage snook and redfish in the backcountry with Jimmie landing a mullet who actually ate a crab pattern. They also stretched their legs walking on the beach and caught ladyfish and snook in the back lakes and surf.

Corbin Blackford also scored in the backcountry catching seatrout and also had the rare accomplishment of getting a Mullet on a fly….

Tosh Vance also while tarpon fishing caught and released 30 plus seatrout while waiting for a shot at a Poon.

Aaron Googins and Eric Rome had shots at tarpon with one eat but didn’t get the hook set. Both are good casters and simply deserved better… Tarpon were in multiple Daisy Chains and simply weren’t interested in eating anything….

Heavy winds kept the fish down and they simply didn’t show….

Stuart Mushlin and Don had a good day catching seatrout and fishing for snook and reds, and got shots at some Tarpon and had a ball discussing English Literature….

Looking forward to June….and some eating fish!

Capt. Al *