Southwest Florida Kayak Angler's Association

Launched just before 6:00 am and headed straight over to Black Key. It was much windier at that hour than what was forecast. Worked my usual route around the north side and towards the back of the Key. There were a lot of showers but no lightening or thunder until about 11:00 when I decided to head in. I did get the slam today consisting of three reds (two were 19" and one rat), a small trout and a small snook. Although I only got the two slot reds today, I have been seeing a lot of reds in the area. If you can dodge the wind and storms, the catching has been real good the last couple of months. The snook and trout seem to be scarce, however. As usual this time of year, the launch site is extremely muddy.

I was there on the 9th and experience about the same as you as far as wind. I found lots of trout In the deeper area on the other side of wood key. They were holding in about 5ft of water. The nice thing was that I found some better trout than I’ve been getting. A few around 15 and one that was close to 20.

My snook and red came around black key with the snook being small, 12 or so and the red being around 19 as well.

I have only found decent size trout one day over the last few months and they were on the flat north of Black Key hanging with the tarpon that day. I caught six that were all in the 19" range but neither the trout nor tarpon have been up on that flat the last few times I've been there. Most of my recent success has been with reds that have been tight to or close to the mangroves, with an occasional snook or trout thrown in. I have been throwing a Skitter Walk early and then go to soft plastics, mostly motor oil or Houdini. I have been lucky recently in that I have been able to come up with a red or two before the storms have chased me in. We'll see tomorrow if my recent luck continues.