Sanibel Fishing Reports (May 2026)

Tim Rushing
Naples, Florida
Reported: 4 months ago

The Naples Fishing Report for December is full of fish, fun, and mild weather! We’ve been bouncing around from Naples to Marco Island and the 10,000 Islands the past several weeks, and the fishing has been outstanding. December fishing down here in Southwest Florida is always one of those special...

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Tim Rushing Naples, Florida Reported: 4 months ago

The Naples Fishing Report for December is full of fish, fun, and mild weather! We’ve been bouncing around from Naples to Marco Island and the 10,000 Islands the past several weeks, and the fishing has been outstanding. December fishing down here in Southwest Florida is always one of those special windows of time, where the skies are easter egg blue, the waters calm, and the temperatures balmy! If you want a tripletail, they are showing up all over the trap buoys. The back country is loaded with all kinds of fun things to catch, from trophies, to dinner, or loads of fish plain ol family and kid catching fun! The water has cooled down into the low 70’s and that always seems to jumpstart the fish into a frisky mood as they try to eat the waves of bait that are still present. They also start to pick up an interest in eating shrimp. The fish that seem to really start biting during this time of year are the seatrout. They love shrimp, jigs tipped with shrimp, and will eat pilchards. The weeks before the cold snap last week seemed to produce at least one nice redfish, every trip along with countless smaller snook, fun-sized tarpon, snapper and jack crevalle. That trend of nice redfish has continued. Since those couple of cold days behind the front, the fishing in Naples started producing a load of black drum, trout, nice redfish, jewfish, snapper, sheepshead and jack crevalle. We started mixing in shrimp, and jigs for bait, along with pilchards. If you want to catch something to eat, watch the kids or family have fun, or hunt a trophy it's a great time to make it happen

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Dalton Rybka
Fort Myers Beach, Florida
Reported: 4 months ago

The sheepshead bite has been on fire along with snook and trout! During these extreme winter lows the docks and grass flats have been producing

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Dalton Rybka Fort Myers Beach, Florida Reported: 4 months ago

The sheepshead bite has been on fire along with snook and trout! During these extreme winter lows the docks and grass flats have been producing

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Perry Bedell with On a Mission Fishing Charters
Naples, Florida
Reported: 5 months ago

November wrapped up on a high note, capped off by a busy holiday week and some incredible catches for our clients. As we transition toward winter and the water continues to cool, our offshore fishery shifts into an entirely different gear. This time of year, you truly never know what...

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Perry Bedell with On a Mission Fishing Charters Naples, Florida Reported: 5 months ago

November wrapped up on a high note, capped off by a busy holiday week and some incredible catches for our clients. As we transition toward winter and the water continues to cool, our offshore fishery shifts into an entirely different gear. This time of year, you truly never know what you might run into offshore—and that unpredictability is part of the fun. Just this week, we ran across a school of massive Blackfin Tuna surprisingly close to land. Encounters like these are exactly the kind of bonus opportunities winter can bring. Along with the occasional surprises, all of our reliable staples have been showing nicely too. Cobia schools have been consistent from the nearshore wrecks out to the offshore structures, and they’ll remain one of our primary targets throughout the winter season. With the cooler temperatures, big Amberjacks are also pushing in closer. These fish provide an absolute blast on rod and reel—we'll chum them up and throw artificials or flies right at them on the surface. Winter also brings some of the best bottom fishing of the entire year, and it’s prime time for serious meat runs. Grouper and Snapper will continue to be major players offshore through the coming months. On the inshore side, we’re right on the edge of switching fully into our winter pattern, transitioning from live pilchards to shrimp and jigs once the backcountry water temps reach that key threshold. Live bait is still producing well with Snook, Redfish, and plenty of Jack Crevalles. As things cool a bit more, shrimp fishing will light up with Trout, Sheepshead, Pompano, Redfish,

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Yanni Melissas with Boca Grande Florida Tarpon Fishing Charters
Boca Grande, Florida
Reported: 8 months ago

The Tarpon fishing has been good, we’ve been concentrating on that as always this part of the year.

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Yanni Melissas with Boca Grande Florida Tarpon Fishing Charters Boca Grande, Florida Reported: 8 months ago

The Tarpon fishing has been good, we’ve been concentrating on that as always this part of the year.

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Dan Muench
Fort Myers, Florida
Reported: 9 months ago

Out today with two teens. Hot. Water temp said 89 degrees! Redfish bite is still good! And some tarpon are still in the area!

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Dan Muench Fort Myers, Florida Reported: 9 months ago

Out today with two teens. Hot. Water temp said 89 degrees! Redfish bite is still good! And some tarpon are still in the area!

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James Goodman
Fort Myers, Florida
Reported: 9 months ago

Been an incredible bite for big snook fishing 6 inch live threadfin herring on 30 lb leader with a 4/0 circle hook. Pitching the mangroves on a strong tide.

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James Goodman Fort Myers, Florida Reported: 9 months ago

Been an incredible bite for big snook fishing 6 inch live threadfin herring on 30 lb leader with a 4/0 circle hook. Pitching the mangroves on a strong tide.

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Roland Willock
Cape Coral, Florida
Reported: 9 months ago

Weather has been a pain especially in the afternoons this time of year but getting it done!!!

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Roland Willock Cape Coral, Florida Reported: 9 months ago

Weather has been a pain especially in the afternoons this time of year but getting it done!!!

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Perry Bedell with On a Mission Fishing Charters
Naples, Florida
Reported: 10 months ago

Summer time protocol is underway in Naples, FL. Hot temps, scattered thunderstorms and hungry fish will be the trend for the coming months. June fishing has been phenomenal so far and is one of our favorite months of the year for a reason. Permit fishing has been epic with large...

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Perry Bedell with On a Mission Fishing Charters Naples, Florida Reported: 10 months ago

Summer time protocol is underway in Naples, FL. Hot temps, scattered thunderstorms and hungry fish will be the trend for the coming months. June fishing has been phenomenal so far and is one of our favorite months of the year for a reason. Permit fishing has been epic with large aggressive schools of fish being a common occurrence. They tend to move around more this time of the year but once you get on them it's go time. There have been a few Cobia around offshore as well and are always a welcome guest while we are out Permit fishing. In terms of inshore fishing Snook has been the star of the show. The Snook bite has been incredible with activity out of them wherever we choose to fish them. Whether it be in the backcountry, the pass, the beach or even nearshore wrecks. The Tarpon migration is still underway as well with good numbers of fish swimming the beach. This is bucket list trophy fish time of the year and the On a Mission team is out there grinding in the heat making it happen on a daily basis.

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