Hello fellow anglers March in S.W. Florida things are improving as we get closer to summer. Depending on the weather this would be a great time to head offshore. Out in 100 feet of water you may encounter some nice size yellow tail snapper. Find an artificial reef and get anchored up on it so you may chum and pull the fish away from the structure. While you are chumming have some rods ready with just a hook and leader. This is when you need to be patient, you can put some baits down with frozen baits. Like squid or sardines and shrimp. This will keep you busy but continue to keep an eye on your chum and watch for the snapper to come up to the surface. This is when you put a piece of cut bait on the rod with just a hook and drop it overboard. Leave your bail open and let the bail sink the same speed as your chum. Leave your bail open and watch the line as it comes off the spool. When the line starts to fly off your spool flip the bail and hold on tight. When the line comes tight it will be a challenge to get the fish to the boat. When you chum it attracts all types of fish. There is the man in the grey suit / shark, and the silver bullet/barracuda. If you get your catch to the boat in one piece you did it right. And if those guy win they get lunch. Also in this area if you find some hard bottom or some small ledges you may even catch a keeper red grouper. And in a little closer to shore around 70 feet you may also get some lane snapper and some porgies in the same area, there may also be some white grunts too. And even closer to shore around 40 feet of water on some natural bottom you may find some sheepshead and flounder. Some of these places you catch sheepshead on one side of the boat and flounder on the other. And depending on the migration of the bait fish you may find some Spanish mackerel in the Gulf waters. Some times the Spanish mackerel get thick in the passes where you could setup a rig with a jig and a spoon. This is like a chicken rig just tie the jig on the shorter leader and a jig on the longer leader. This is very productive if you can see the schools feeding on the surface. Set up a couple of these rigs and troll them around the edges of the schools of feeding mackerel. As we work out way inshore there should be plenty of red action they may be under the mangroves or out on the flats in the sand holes waiting for an unsuspecting bait to swim by. This is where you could use some cut bait in the sand holes like fresh lady fish or even half of a crab and let them soak and they can smell that in the water. Also drifting across the grass flats using a cork and a shrimp or lure to harvest trout. Drift and cast over the grass and pop the cork to attract the fish and they see your lure or shrimp falling and they will attack it and the fun begins. And id you find structure there may be some mangrove snapper to test your angling skills. This time of year shrimp is good but there may be the invasion of the white bait which a excellent baits. This for the guys that throw cast nets for these baits. So if you would like to have a personal training session with Capt. Bart Marx give me a call 9941-979-6517 or e-mail me captbart@alphaomegacharters.com And if you go to my web site there will be all the information on training sessions and private trips with Capt. Bart on his boat. So give me a call and always remember singing drags and tight lines make me smile. <*(((((>{