Greetings Gang; it’s been a long while since my last report and I’d like to say, the fishing is quite good!

With a recent improvement in my back’s overall health, I hope to once again be a regular contributor here. Now; on to the fishing report…

We’ve fished both north and south of town recently and happy to report there is grass growing on all of the flats I’ve visited; I expect there is at least some grass growing throughout the tidal portions of the IRL. Some areas the growth is still a bit sparse and in a few spots I found great stands of Turtle grass. Turtle grass is fairly fragile and to me, it means a healthier ecosystem than we’ve had in the past many years.

Our trout bite has been good in surrounding areas of the Round Island boat launch. Here, topwater walking plugs produced great results early in the day. Zman Jerk Shadz and Diezel Minnowz rigged weedless (yes, isn’t it great having to worry about grass tangling on the hook again) are catching everything once the topwater bite subsides. Several trout were over slot and I can’t tell you how happy this makes me. Four inch Zman baits have been catching all of the usual suspects, including trout, jacks, ladyfish, juvenile snook and redfish; even mangrove and mutton snappers are hammering them!

To the south, we found heavy trout action, not on the shallow flats, but in the deeper sloughs bisecting the flats. Ric managed a beautiful redfish along the first edge we drifted over. Recognizing what just happened set the tone and pattern of the morning. Constantly repositioning the boat to keep us on the edge of the slough meant steadily bent rods. A dozen casts without a bite meant a repositioning was in order. The bite was hot for about two hours, before slowing down. The bite really never stopped entirely, but I (actually my back) was ready to call it a day.

Shore bound anglers are doing pretty well using small live baitfish for mangrove snapper near rocky structure and bridge and deeper dock pilings. Fish very near the structure and worry about battling the fish out of their lair after you hook them!