Cayo Costa Fishing Reports (July 2026)

Bartow, Florida

Reported 1 year ago

The winter feels are here in Southwest Florida. We may not be in full blown cold season but it feels like it some days. Early cold fronts that have not been common the past several years, extreme low winter type tides and of course our northern visitors have made their appearance. The other, more notable signs of winter fishing is the invasion of big sheepshead in to our inshore waters. When the temps drop these delicious fish make their way inshore to engage their annual spawning. Sheepshead are big, hardy, tasty and strong fighting fish that feed exclusively on crustaceans...

Brandon D. Bartow, Florida Reported 1 year ago

The winter feels are here in Southwest Florida. We may not be in full blown cold season but it feels like it some days. Early cold fronts that have not been common the past several years, extreme low winter type tides and of course our northern visitors have made their appearance. The other, more notable signs of winter fishing is the invasion of big sheepshead in to our inshore waters. When the temps drop these delicious fish make their way inshore to engage their annual spawning. Sheepshead are big, hardy, tasty and strong fighting fish that feed exclusively on crustaceans like barnacles, shrimp, crabs and even sand fleas. Our sheepshead are a structure oriented species, meaning they like cover such as docks, rock piles, mangrove branches and you can sometimes find them along oyster beds where a lot of their food can be found. They have big strong jaws, lined with rows of rounded teeth resembling human teeth. They are quite the sight to see, but despite their strange appearance they taste much like the food they consume. Some people would compare their meat to crab. I typically target these fish using a sharp 1/4 ounce jig head tipped with a small shrimp or if need be a piece of a larger shrimp. The key is to cover the hook without giving them enough hanging off the hook where they can pull it off. Covering the hook makes them have no choice but to eat the whole bait. Their mouth is so full of teeth sometimes it is difficult to get a hook in them, needless to say it is not uncommon to miss them.

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Logan H.

Cape Coral, Florida

Reported 1 year ago

Nearshore bite is heating up.

Logan H. Cape Coral, Florida Reported 1 year ago

Nearshore bite is heating up.

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Brandon D.

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...

Brandon D. 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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Brandon D.

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...

Brandon D. 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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Brandon D.

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...

Brandon D. 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 H.

Cape Coral, Florida

Reported 1 year ago

No problem red bite is on fire right now

Logan H. Cape Coral, Florida Reported 1 year ago

No problem red bite is on fire right now

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Brandon D.

Bartow, Florida

Reported 1 year ago

Fall is here and despite temperatures keeping pace with the typical summer heat we are seeing fall arrive in the form of an unbelievable fish bite. The fall months in southwest Florida is known for one of the greatest red drum fishing experiences found anywhere. These redfish are schooling up and eating everything in sight to prepare for their spawn season. These schools are mostly upper slot to over slot fish most measuring in the 30 inch range. We are finding an abundance of slot redfish around the mangrove islands as well along with plenty of great snook action. Our...

Brandon D. Bartow, Florida Reported 1 year ago

Fall is here and despite temperatures keeping pace with the typical summer heat we are seeing fall arrive in the form of an unbelievable fish bite. The fall months in southwest Florida is known for one of the greatest red drum fishing experiences found anywhere. These redfish are schooling up and eating everything in sight to prepare for their spawn season. These schools are mostly upper slot to over slot fish most measuring in the 30 inch range. We are finding an abundance of slot redfish around the mangrove islands as well along with plenty of great snook action. Our trout fishing is getting great as well, they are gaining size and we are starting to see the bigger slot fish arrive over the grass flats. Fall is one of the best times to fish the waters of Pine Island, the fish are feisty, water temps will be dropping and it’s only getting better from here on out.

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Brandon D.

Bartow, Florida

Reported 2 years ago

The summer fishing is heating up and you don’t want to miss a second of the action. Big beautiful redfish, powerful snook and an abundance of seatrout have been giving us some fun days on the water lately. Bait is all over the sound and it’s the perfect size to sit off groups of fish and access the bite with long casts. This time of year we really try to use a long light leader so as to not give ourselves away. These lighter leaders sometimes means tougher times getting those big fish to the boat and requiring a lot...

Brandon D. Bartow, Florida Reported 2 years ago

The summer fishing is heating up and you don’t want to miss a second of the action. Big beautiful redfish, powerful snook and an abundance of seatrout have been giving us some fun days on the water lately. Bait is all over the sound and it’s the perfect size to sit off groups of fish and access the bite with long casts. This time of year we really try to use a long light leader so as to not give ourselves away. These lighter leaders sometimes means tougher times getting those big fish to the boat and requiring a lot more maneuvering when these fish get us in a tight situation, but that’s what makes this sport so fun, the thrill of the fight. The water is heating up quickly which means we are required to keep less bait so they have plenty of oxygen in our well. We are starting to see some mangrove snapper moving into the inshore waters and it’s about to get even more exciting when we can fill limits of delicious snapper. Tarpon are all around and we’ve managed a few short hookups but with the windy conditions we’ve been facing some days just aren’t great days to fish for them so the time spent fishing tarpon has been limited unfortunately but that is sure to change with nicer weather on the horizon.

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Brandon D.

Bartow, Florida

Reported 2 years ago

Sheepshead fishing is in full swing and they’re giving us some fun days on the water. These tasty, hard fighting fish are highly sought after during our winter months. They can be a tricky fish to hook, with a mouth full of human like teeth the areas to set a hook are few which can make them an even tougher target. Alongside the sheepshead we are catching reds, snapper and black drum, plenty of variety and good eating fish to catch when the weather is cold. For the next couple months we will stick to shrimp for our bait of...

Brandon D. Bartow, Florida Reported 2 years ago

Sheepshead fishing is in full swing and they’re giving us some fun days on the water. These tasty, hard fighting fish are highly sought after during our winter months. They can be a tricky fish to hook, with a mouth full of human like teeth the areas to set a hook are few which can make them an even tougher target. Alongside the sheepshead we are catching reds, snapper and black drum, plenty of variety and good eating fish to catch when the weather is cold. For the next couple months we will stick to shrimp for our bait of choice. Catching white bait these times of the year can be difficult and the fish switch their food choices to bait easier to catch like shrimp, crabs and sand fleas. Fish get slower with dropping water temps so their energy levels drop as well, they still fight like crazy and show us a great time on the water.

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Brandon D.

Bartow, Florida

Reported 2 years ago

The weather is cooling down but the fishing is heating up, and it’s getting to be some of the finest fishing of the year. We are finding large schools of redfish, big hungry snook, larger slot sized trout and to top it off the sheepshead are moving inshore for the winter months. We are starting to transition over to fishing shrimp but still catching nice white bait for the big predators to eat. It’s a great time to get out and fight some fish, the winds have held us up from going offshore much but the inshore bite is just...

Brandon D. Bartow, Florida Reported 2 years ago

The weather is cooling down but the fishing is heating up, and it’s getting to be some of the finest fishing of the year. We are finding large schools of redfish, big hungry snook, larger slot sized trout and to top it off the sheepshead are moving inshore for the winter months. We are starting to transition over to fishing shrimp but still catching nice white bait for the big predators to eat. It’s a great time to get out and fight some fish, the winds have held us up from going offshore much but the inshore bite is just as good and the results speak for themselves.