Shell key/ Ft. De Soto area

Hello Everyone, Fishing this week great, especially for tarpon! The main migration is pushing in and tarpon were everywhere they were suppose to be. The beaches, passes, and bridges in the area were all lit up with silver kings ready to take crabs, threadfin herring, DOA baitbusters and flies. Once the water cleared up from an earlier front, loads of tarpon could be sight-fished just of area beaches. Larger pods are starting to move in and its not uncommon to see 200+ fish slowly cruising down the beach. Some pods will have fish that will eat and some wont but there are enough out there to keep you busy all day long. A regular client of mine Marc Gerber caught a 100lb tarpon on his first cast of the day and continued on to go 2-4 sight-fishing during a half day . The bait wasn’t in the water for 2 seconds before it got blasted. Not a bad way to start the trip! Tarpon arent the only thing around. Large schools of bluefish, jacks, and ladies are covering area shoals and can be loads of fun if you just want to catch loads of fish. Mixed in are sporadic monster spanish mackerel, and a few pompano. Of course with this much activity, blacktip sharks are never far behind this time of year and its quite common to have one of your bluefish get ravaged by a big shark on the way in. There are loads of them out there right now through late summer. I like to target these sharks with large topwater plugs when they really get going to add to the excitement. Some people dont like sharks for some reason but I think they are great sportfish and the right ones are delicious on the grill. Trout fishing has been great first thing in the morning with topwater pulgs on the flats. This is one of my favorite types of fishing because it is so visual and you never know whats going to rise up and pound your lure. We caught blues, macks, jacks, redfish, sharks, cobia mixed in with the trout and even jumped a tarpon throwing topwaters this week. Trout are also around sloughs near the beach as well. All in all fishing is great this time of year for just about everything and its prime time for the silver king. May, June and July have to be my favorite months to fish so book your trips today. Catch a memory.