Hello fellow anglers May in S.W. Florida and things are getting hot. The cool fronts have slowed and its easier to pick a day to travel offshore. The annual migration of Tarpon usually comes this month. Also June, and July things slow for the tarpon as the big schools continue to migrate North. Some start to go inland in search for food. This is a great time to head offshore to get a mess of snapper, porgies, b-liners and some grouper maybe. This can happen where the waters are 70ft. to 100ft. About 20 to 30 miles offshore. Some of the artificial reefs are good places to start. And as you are traveling to and from these places keep your eyes on the depth finder and mark some spots that you see while you are under way. Looking for depth changes/small ledges. Also look for a Christmas tree of bait and see if they are on a small hard bottom that is worthy of fishing. There a lot of anglers today that have the trolling motors that have the anchor setting. These are nice if you like to run and gun. I feel that the motor running keeps the snapper on the bottom. Well I am old school I like to anchor on my good snapper spots and chum the snapper to the surface. This way you can use lighter setups and have some good fun. And I bring several frozen baits, this way we can find out what they like today. And I like to bring live shrimp or if you can throw the net and bring some white bait. So when the bite slows is when you start trying out your live bait. You don’t start with steak and then try to feed them hamburger Yeah. And I do like to use chum, but sometimes it does attract sharks! And this time of year you can put a bonus rig out behind the boat with a little wire and maybe pick up a king mackerel too. I have learned while you are bottom fishing the fish you bring to the surface are trying to spit the hook out. So as they are doing this they are purging their tummy and creating a under water chum slick. This will attract kings and some times blackfin tuna. This time of year you may even attract some dolphin fish. But make sure you check the FWC regulations if you stay in State waters 9 miles. And if you go past hat you are in federal water and the regulations cam be different. Well that’s enough about offshore lets talk about inshore. So this would be a good month to get an inshore slam. Yeah a red fish, snook and a trout. And if you worked hard you could do a grand slam add a tarpon to you catch! So the reds should be scattered all over from the mangrove to the sand bars and creeks. Trout should be out on the grass flats and just outside the sandbars. Snook are thinking where they need to go to to spawn and are looking for food to fatten up to swim to there spawning areas. So if you are interested in coming along with Capt. Bart Marx give me a call 941-979-6517 or e-mail me at captbart@alphaomegacharters.com I can take you on my boat or I can go on your boat. For those that are new to S.W. Florida fishing and have a boat and want to learn about our area I do a training session on your boat. I help with your gear and show where you can take your boat safely. And show some techniques to target fish. So give me a call and I will get you hooked up. And always remember singing drags and tight lines make me smile. <*(((((>{