Sanibel Fishing Reports (May 2026)

Jack Swedberg
Fort Myers, Florida
Reported: 1 year ago

42 inch redfish on a nearshore trip

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Jack Swedberg Fort Myers, Florida Reported: 1 year ago

42 inch redfish on a nearshore trip

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James Goodman
Fort Myers, Florida
Reported: 1 year ago

Lots of Cobia and reds on the near shore wrecks eating small pilchards off the bottom.

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James Goodman Fort Myers, Florida Reported: 1 year ago

Lots of Cobia and reds on the near shore wrecks eating small pilchards off the bottom.

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Brandon Douberly
Bartow, Florida
Reported: 1 year ago

Fishing ahead of a cold front is one of my absolute favorites. The barometric pressure gets to a perfect point before fronts come through and these fish feel it and get extremely active. Cold fronts can cause fish to go into a lethargic state where they have no energy or...

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Brandon Douberly Bartow, Florida Reported: 1 year ago

Fishing ahead of a cold front is one of my absolute favorites. The barometric pressure gets to a perfect point before fronts come through and these fish feel it and get extremely active. Cold fronts can cause fish to go into a lethargic state where they have no energy or motivation to chase or eat baits. Imagine for a second you wake up and you feel bloated, nauseous even, your initial reaction is not to get out of bed and eat a big breakfast, instead you lay around for as long as it takes to feel well again. This feeling in that scenario is very similar to what fish feel after a low pressure system blows through, they have to work to keep a balance and have no problem sitting around until the pressure builds back and they feel comfortable again. They tend to eat like they’re going into hibernation for a few days because essentially that is the case. As for the day we had before our most recent front, the fish had no quit in them, it seemed like every bait for 3-5 hours was getting bit. We caught tons of redfish, snook and trout in just a matter of a few hours. The trout were huge, most over 20 inches, redfish ranged in size but many between 19 and 25 inches. We caught a lot of snook too, most in the mid 20’s and a couple over 30. I had my brother out and we were on a mission to get meat for a family fish fry. We did our job, we limited out on all three species and the family will have a fine fish fry in the coming days.

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Phil Haley
Naples, Florida
Reported: 1 year ago

Snuck red tarpon goliath grouper all are biting good. Come on down to Naples, Florida and get you some took my grandson Fishing got his first snook and redfish and goliath grouper three off the bucket list come fishing in Florida and you won't regret it.

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Phil Haley Naples, Florida Reported: 1 year ago

Snuck red tarpon goliath grouper all are biting good. Come on down to Naples, Florida and get you some took my grandson Fishing got his first snook and redfish and goliath grouper three off the bucket list come fishing in Florida and you won't regret it.

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Brandon Douberly
Bartow, Florida
Reported: 1 year ago

Late fall is an epic time to fish our waters, the snook are fully back in the inshore waters and hungry after all the work they put in during their spawning season. You will frequently find long, skinny female snook looking to get their figure back after giving birth to...

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Brandon Douberly Bartow, Florida Reported: 1 year ago

Late fall is an epic time to fish our waters, the snook are fully back in the inshore waters and hungry after all the work they put in during their spawning season. You will frequently find long, skinny female snook looking to get their figure back after giving birth to the next generation of snook. We have been catching our bigger snook on large greenbacks we refer to as turbos, these bigger baits are irresistible to those bigger slot and overslot snook. Beef up your leader because you will need it with some of these monsters, I typically step it up to 40 lb Fluorocarbon which is less susceptible to abrasion when those fish shoot under structure. Redfish are still schooling up towards the tail end of their spawn, mostly the mid to upper slot fish are what we have found around the mangrove islands, oyster beds and docks. Pinfish are hard to pass up but they will certainly eat greenbacks as well. Trout over grass flats and edges of bars and channels have been pretty good, just lacking in size at times. We have been targeting those trout with gulp shrimp under a popping cork. They absolutely love those baits but just about anything will work. At times when the wind is blowing it is best to use a bait you can slow retrieve like a shrimp immitation bait. We are starting to head into a change in season, cold fronts are pushing through and soon we will see a change in bait, tide heights and target species. As we begin seeing lower winter tides we will switch to shrimp and focus more on sheepshead as they make their way into our inshore waters to spawn.

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Jesse Calhoun
Fort Myers Beach, Florida
Reported: 1 year ago

Storms are gone, fish are here. Action all day every day

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Jesse Calhoun Fort Myers Beach, Florida Reported: 1 year ago

Storms are gone, fish are here. Action all day every day

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Brandon Douberly
Bartow, Florida
Reported: 1 year ago

Our fishing is firing off in Pine Island Sound despite our stint of hurricanes over the last several weeks. unfortunately there is damage left in their wake but it isn’t affecting our fishery and we are open and welcome anyone wanting to get out and catch a bunch of great...

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Brandon Douberly Bartow, Florida Reported: 1 year ago

Our fishing is firing off in Pine Island Sound despite our stint of hurricanes over the last several weeks. unfortunately there is damage left in their wake but it isn’t affecting our fishery and we are open and welcome anyone wanting to get out and catch a bunch of great fish. In between storms we have been catching great redfish that are still schooling up in large numbers as we are in the middle of their spawning season. Snook season is also in full swing for another month and a half and when we break away from the schools of reds we’ve been catching plenty of snook. The slot fish have been getting the best of a few of my groups since the season started; these fish are strong and not an easy fight especially when hooked in the mangroves or other structures. Our trout are getting into a great size range, many of the fish we are catching are in that 15-19 inch range giving my anglers plenty of meat to bring home. This fishing should get better and better in the coming months, fall is a personal favorite time of the year to target big reds, snook, trout and sometimes we get the tarpon to play along as well. Come get on the fish with us, you’ll leave with awesome memories of a great fishing experience.

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Logan Hawthorne
Cape Coral, Florida
Reported: 1 year ago

No problem red bite is on fire right now

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Logan Hawthorne Cape Coral, Florida Reported: 1 year ago

No problem red bite is on fire right now

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