What’s hot around Naples and Marco this week is the pass fishery. The backcountry has taken on a lot of fresh water from the summer rain, salinity in the upper creeks has dropped, and a good share of the inshore fish have slid out toward the passes and the beaches where the water is cleaner and cooler. That concentration makes for a short but very reliable morning bite.
What’s Hitting
Snook are the headline, stacked heavily in Gordon Pass, Doctors Pass and Big Marco Pass on the moving tide — Gulf harvest is closed for a few more days, so this is catch-and-release work. Mangrove snapper are excellent on the pass rock, the residential docks and the nearshore hard bottom. Redfish are tucked into the mangrove roots in the backcountry and showing on the outside bars on the high tide. Nearshore, Spanish mackerel and a few kingfish are on the bait, and the wrecks in 40 to 70 feet are giving up snapper and grouper.
Where to Find Them
Work Gordon Pass and the adjacent beach at first light for snook. Big Marco Pass, Capri Pass and the Hurricane Pass area hold fish through the tide. For redfish, the backcountry mangrove shorelines in the Ten Thousand Islands and the bars around Rookery Bay have been most productive on the flood. Snapper are on any structure with current — pass rock, bridge pilings, deeper dock lines in the Naples canals. Nearshore reefs in 30 to 60 feet hold the mackerel and bottom fish.
Tides & Conditions
Moderate tidal range this week off the waxing moon. The strongest current is on the late-morning outgoing, which is the tide to fish in the passes. Inshore water is 86 to 90 degrees, nearshore Gulf low to mid 80s. Backcountry water is tannic and fresh after the rain. Mornings are calm with a southwest sea breeze filling by midday, and thunderstorms build over the interior every afternoon.
Tackle & Tactics
Pass snook want a 3000- to 4000-size spinner, 20- to 30-pound braid and 30- to 40-pound fluorocarbon. Live pilchards free-lined into the current seam is the highest-percentage approach; a half-ounce to one-ounce jig bounced along the bottom edge of the pass works when the current really moves. Snapper: 15-pound fluorocarbon, small hook, live shrimp — and fish the up-current side of the structure. Redfish in the mangroves want a weedless soft plastic or a live shrimp pitched tight to the roots and left to sit.
Local Intel This Week
The Bayview Park ramp gives the fastest access to Gordon Pass, Caxambas Park on Marco Island is the practical launch for the southern passes and the Ten Thousand Islands, and the Collier Boulevard ramp at Marco serves the central bay. Shore anglers are catching snapper and snook from the Naples Pier and the Gordon Pass jetty. Fish are concentrating in the passes and on outside structure rather than deep in the backcountry because of the fresh water. Snook, redfish and grouper rules differ by zone and season in Southwest Florida; check current FWC regulations before keeping any fish.
This Week’s Tip
In a running pass, the fish are almost never in the middle. They are on the edge where fast water meets slow — the seam along the rock, the eddy behind a point, the color line where the outgoing meets the Gulf. Put your bait in the fast water and let it swing into the seam. That swing is where the eat happens.
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