Early November cold fronts have started to decrease the water temperature fairly rapidly around Palm Island and Manasota Key.  This has moved some of the local guides to start fishing their winter trends.  For me, that takes my attention off of the usual suspects (reds, snook, and trout) and turns my attention to some "food" fishing.  Triple tail and pompano are on my menus for winter time.  Both are delicious, and fun to catch.  Both have a fairly abundant population locally, and both can be caught on either live bait or artificial.  As it gets cold up north, it becomes a fantastic time to go fishing in Southwest Florida!!!

Capt. Mike Slattery
941-626-6946

Finished up a busy week of charters, with the Redbone Celebrity Fishing Tournament. Which I, after 10 years of fishing the tournament, have the opportunity to chair. And, benefits cystic fibrosis research, a disease that affects children.

We had 38 inshore fishing guides, fishing clients from around the US.  Each client is his/her individual team with their assigned guide, 2 clients per boat. All boats were tasked with going out and capturing the inshore Grand Slam (Snook, Redfish,Trout, and Tarpon).  With the fall season offering great weather and fantastic fishing, the guides and clients alike enjoyed the experience and tournament format.  The catch numbers are impressive even without all boats recording their catch.  The big winner are they clients and guide teams that can complete the grand slam!  With most teams only fishing 10-12 he's over a 2 day period, catch 4 particular inshore game fish species is not an easy task. 

Congratulations to all the clients and guide teams that won a category.  And thanks to all that donated time and money for a great cause.  As always, it's a fantastic time to go fishing in SW Florida!!!

Capt. Mike Slattery
941-626-6946

Fall fishing has been great so far in the Manasota Key area, even with a small bout with redtide. Locally, the bays that are closest to the passes and the beach, seem to be taking a little more time to come back. But, the backcountry of Placida Sound has been producing good catch numbers, for all the marquee inshore species.  Schools of redfish can be found on almost any tides.  Snook fishing has been good when the water is moving.  And, we are finding random trout, Jacks, and mangrove snapper along the way.  It's a fun time to go fishing in South West Florida!

Capt. Mike Slattery
941-626-6946

The wind has been brutal since memorial day weekend. So, the Tarpon bite has been lackluster to say the least.  Because of that, I tend to turn my focus on another "big game" species we have available in summer time. Big snook hunting can be some of the most fun and rewarding fishing we offer. Multiple bite days, often in the double digits, with the opportunity for the anglers to land a trophy sized fish.  June is the month for catching big critters, and we have them in fantastic order.  It's a great time to be fishing in South West Florida!

Capt. Mike Slattery
941-626-6946
Manasota Key Fishing Charters

Our Tarpon fishing is in full swing!  The entire fishery is "open" for bites.  The beaches, harbor, and passes all afford their own opportunity for catching the silver king.  This past week on the super moon, we concentrated our efforts on the beach and harbor fishery.  Our clients were awarded with shots at big schools of fish, and bites in the right conditions.  It's a fun and exciting time to go fishing in south west Florida!!!

Capt. Mike Slattery
941-626-6946
Manasota Key Fishing Charters

Tarpon fishing is starting off with a bang!!! The new moon tides proved to be very good on the slower portions.  Most guides fished heavily around the passes this week.  We started to see some migrating fish showing up on our beach front, and these fish are opportunistic, and not relegated to feed on tide flow.  Great opportunity to sneak in some quick bites!!!  It's a fantastic time to fish in south west Florida!!!

Capt. Mike Slattery
Manasota Key Fishing Charters

The week started out on an absolute high note with that super moon on Monday.  We recorded our first "client" tarpon bite of 2021, and caught the "Grand Slam" plus 2 keeper cobia.  We were able to successfully produce results on that same trend for a second day in a row on Tuesday.  Wednesday the tide slowed and the Tarpon fishing got difficult us. As the week progressed, we saw that the fishing tailed off a bit.  But, we still boated 250+ snook, more than 20 overslot redfish, and only the trout we needed to catch and secure the "inshore slam" ever day this week.  That being said, isn't it about time to go fishing in south west Florida?

Capt. Mike Slattery
941-626-6946

The South West Florida winter just doesn't seem to want to subside.  Moving into the middle of April, we are still seeing northern blows and weak fronts... But, they seem to have about run their course, and our trend looks to be moving along the summer temperature trend.  That means it's time to go TARPON FISHING!!!!  As a SWFL guide, we live for this season.  Giant schools of Tarpon moving into our area from the north and south.  We will hunt these giant groups of fish in crystal clear water, using live bait and lures.  There has never been a better time to book a Tarpon charter for summer time in South West Florida!!!

Capt. Mike Slattery
941-626-6946

For the last week in March/first week of April, we had another cold front.  This spring has been a trend of getting right with water temps and trends, and resetting...  It's really has been a grind.  With the latest Easter front, our water temperature dropped 13 degrees in the bay.  So, we reset into a winter trend and caught pompano, spotted sea trout, and flounder. We are looking forward to the summer season, it's time for the water to get warm around Manasota Key.  With that said, it's great time to book your adventures with Manasota Key Outfitters.

Capt. Mike Slattery
941-626-6946

With some cooler temperature, we turned our attention back gulf side last week.  The plummeting Gulf water temps, moved some nice triple tail back into our area.  We were able to take advantage of calm winds and flat seas.  It has been a great winter season for this fishery, what a fantastic time to go fishing in South West Florida.

Capt. Mike Slattery
941-626-6946