May is one of the most anticipated months for fishing in S.W. Florida. The pelagic species appear with lots of bait to feed on. Out in the Gulf of Mexico Kings and Spanish Mackeral can be targeted by trolling with spoons and jigs and a little wire because they have teeth! Yes the Spanish can be used as shark bait. Check the regulations before you try this since they do have to be of legal size, and follow FWC rules. You could find several different species of the grey fish eating machines following the schools of Spanish, like blacktips, spinner, bull, and possibly hammerhead sharks. The hammerheads, depending on their size, will eat a whole tarpon that are around and are expected this time of year. The latter part of the month the Silver King will pile up in the passes of S.W. Coastal Florida in search of food. This is when several thousands of anglers make there way to our area to target Tarpon. One of the reasons is Charlotte Harbor has acres and acres of grass flats and mangroves where bait can mature and be moved about by the tides. As they migrate to the passes, they are funneled into a narrow area and are easy targets so the tarpon can feed and put on some pounds to migrate into the Gulf to spawn. And for that reason we get billed as "THE BEST TARPON FISHING IN THE WORLD". In the past I have been able to ask some of the old timers what is the most consistent thing about a tarpon fishing, they paused to ponder a answer and looked at me and said, "they are inconsistent". So I thanked them for the information then I realized I was on the right learning curve, they are inconsistent.  Just like any profession, learning to tarpon fish takes about 10,000 hours of training. And this is the time of year to get your hours in. So there are all types of baits that tarpon will eat, from squirrel fish to ghost crabs and just about every thing that swims, yes even catfish. And there are several artificials they will attack also like Rapalas, Storm lures, hard and soft plastics. There are others too and some people use only one thing or type that they have confidence in and also a certain color. There are other fish to target snook will have started moving around, look for them on the deeper edges and pockets along the shore as they hunt for food as they prepare to spawn. Fish that live in the rivers migrate to salty water where they can spawn. The ones that live in the harbor move to the coast and the ones along the coast migrate offshore. In the past I was diving with my oldest son in 45 feet of water on an artificial reef and there were snook on that reef. Some of them get very large before they actually spawn. The snappers should be easy to find offshore too around artificial reefs and natural bottom structure. I choose to use frozen baits to start a bottom bite then send something alive down when the bite slows, after you have a few in the box. Inshore the redfish can be found scattered all around the area. So if you would like to learn some of these tactics by fishing with Capt. Bart Marx give me a call 941-979-6517 or e-mail captbart@alphaomegacharters.com.  Always remember, singing drags and tight lines make me smile. <*(((((>{