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FLORIDA FISHING REPORTS  WINTER 2004

4/27/2004

It's time to head back to Long Island for another fishing season up north.  I have had a great time here in Naples/Marco Island in Southwest Florida.  The fishing was excellent, the weather could have been better with less wind.  I look forward to getting right into the weakfish and bass which should be ready to bite next week.  Hopefully the weather will warm up and the fishing should be hot.  My reports will now move to Fishing reports 2004.  I will again be writing a weekly fishing column for the Fire Island News.  My boat the Skimmer is just about set with a new Mercury OptiMax 225 hp engine.  I plan to finish my new striped bass DVD in a couple of months and then Tim Smith will edit and it should be ready to go this fall.  We are also planning to shoot a flounder fishing and perhaps we can put together a permit fishing DVD from the footage we shot in Florida over the winter.

Captain Al Lorenzetti

4/23/2004

Today was an excellent day of fishing for the typical species caught in the spring in Southwest Florida.  The weather was gorgeous, sunny with calm winds and clear water.  The bait was plentiful and I netted a couple hundred threadfins and pilchards.  Interesting note, while netting bait, I caught a spotted ray in my net.  It was about 5 feet from tip to tip.  I really had my hands full when he came up tangled in my net.  I luckily was able to free him from my net unharmed but he soaked me and the boat and came close to pulling me overboard.  I looked for tarpon and permit but not much was showing.  I then set up along the edge of a shoal that had a turtle grass patch.  I anchored so that I could toss the bait up onto the edge and let it drift off the edge and over the grass and then into the deeper water.  It was non stop action for most of the day.  I bagged my limit of trout (4 with one over 20 inches) and released at least a dozen more.  I hooked up with and boated a big snook about 15 pounds and that fish really gave me a tough battle on light spinning tackle.  He almost spooled me in fact and I fought him for about 10 minutes.  I also caught 3 redfish up to about 15 pounds keeping one for the table and releasing the others.  In addition there were many jacks to 5 pounds, ladyfish and sharks.  It was great fun and a very memorable day.  I also spent some time with friends, Craig Little and his family and hung out on the beach with them.  I took a swim to cool off.  It was very beautiful. 

Captain Al Lorenzetti

4/22/2004

I fished with Ron today.  He is married to Craig and Susie's daughter Courtney.  We tried for the tarpon in Robert's Bay but no takers.  We then headed for my bait placed and loaded up on greenies.  We tried the tarpon and permit spots but to no avail.  We then hit the place that produced a nice snook for me yesterday and wouldn't you guess it, we scored again with a nice snook of about 15 pounds.  Ron also had a smaller snook earlier in the day.  It was fun and the weather was great.  It got up to about 90 today in Naples.

Captain Al Lorenzetti

4/21/2004

I had a good day of fishing today.  The bait was tough to get but I managed a tank full of greenies, threadfin herring and pilchards.  I hooked up with a couple of friends, Scott and Woody and we worked the Ten Thousand Islands around White Horse Key for a while and didn't do too much.  I searched for permit in all the places but saw none.  I had a couple of tarpon rolling but couldn't do anything with them.  I then found some really good bait.  I netted more threadfins and large pilchards.  I went to Cape Romano and found a friend Sal that was fishing and catching good snook.  I handed him some bait which he was short on and anchored up near him.  He caught a couple of nice fish and I caught a couple.  One was short and the other was about 15 pounds and a nice keeper.  Sal by the way owns a great Italian Restaurant on Marco Island called DaVinci.  Excellent food and generous drinks.  The wind was a little funky today, it blew just enough to make spotting fish difficult  tomorrow looks like it will be better.  Pictures will be posted tomorrow.

Captain Al Lorenzetti

4/11/2004

Today was even a greater day than yesterday.  Tally for the day was 2 tarpon and 8 permit.  We spotted big schools of permit very early.  We wanted to target tarpon for the day but could not resist the offering.  We tossed live crabs and did a double hook-up to start the day.  We boated both fish and one was about 40 pounds.  When we were fighting the permit the tarpon started to roll.  I changed rigs as fast as I could and we chased the tarpon.  It was exactly one hour later in the tide from yesterday.  The tarpon came busting through heading for who knows where.  We had to run and gun them getting ahead of the school and waiting for them to come to us.  We did it about three times before we hooked up.  It was a nice fish, about 80 to 100 pounds.  I fought him for about 10 minutes, got four or five jumps out of him and then when he was dogging it at boat-side the hook pulled out of the lower jaw and I noticed that it was sprung a bit.  The tarpon blitz died shortly after and we went back to the permit hot spot from the morning.  They were there as we hoped and we kicked butt on them until we ran out of crabs.  Two of the permit today were very big, about 40 or more pounds.  It was a great day again with good company and lots of fishing action.

TO SEE VIDEO FOOTAGE OF THE FISHING ACTION FROM TODAY CLICK BELOW

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Captain Al Lorenzetti

4/10/2004

Tim and I headed for the permit and tarpon grounds again.  We netted bait in the morning but it was a little tough again to get all that we wanted.  We ran right to the tarpon spot and within 10 minutes the fish showed up busting and rolling.  We hooked one fish but just for a moment before it spit the hook.  I got one jump out of it.  A short while later Tim spotted a school of permit.  From then on it was chaos with schools of permit all around the boat.  We boated about 10 fish and lost a couple.  It was another great day.
                                                   

Captain Al Lorenzetti

4/9/2004

Tim and I had a great time today.  We fished for tarpon first thing in the morning after cast-netting some greenies.  We ran to the tarpon grounds and looked around a little and saw a bunch of big tarpon rolling nearby.  We stopped and set out two lines on floats.  Within 5 minutes Tim had on a big tarpon which jumped and ran out almost the whole spool of line.  I chased it with the boat and we did battle for about 20 minutes.  We had the fish near the boat and were really putting pressure on it and broke the line at the boat.  The float had slid down the line and locked up on the swivel which screwed up the line.  It was fun however and you can't boat them all, in fact it saved us some time which would be required to boat and revive the fish.  The tarpon then seemed to go to bed and there was no more action except small sharks, mackerel and catfish.  We headed for the permit area for lunch and a change of venue.  We didn't have two bites from our sandwiched when I spotted a school of permit tailing on the surface.  I tossed them a crab and they ate it like candy.  We boated that fish and then Tim had another.  We called it a short day and headed for the barn.  A good day of fishing.

Captain Al Lorenzetti

4/8/2004

AL and I had another great day fishing SW Florida. The water cleared up and with that the bait was easier to locate so he threw his cast net and loaded up with greenies. We started off Tarpon fishing with the same results as Tuesday, saw a bunch but know takers. We then decided to have lunch in the HOT Permit area and wait for them to show. We never have a chance to finish our lunch due to the great Permit fishing. We had 5 Permit total and I taped some great action footage for an upcoming video

Tim C. Smith
                                                               
 

4/7/2004

Today Tim and I worked hard to find live bait.  We searched and caught a bunch on Sabiki rigs and then headed for the Tarpon grounds.  We struck out on the tarpon but saw a bunch rolling.  We then went to the area that we caught trout yesterday but only hooked up with ladyfish and Spanish Mackerel.  The clouds were heading our way so I suggested we head to the alternate permit spot and look before were were clouded out.  We found two pods of permit and hooked up both times.  I caught one and Time caught another.  We called it a day and a good one it was.

Captain Al Lorenzetti and Tim C. Smith

4/6/2004

Tim Smith and I fished today against the elements.  It has been blowing for 5 days straight out of the Northwest which is terrible for SW Florida.  The waves break on the beach and churn up the water.  The water gets cloudy and the bait and fish disappear.  We did net a few greenies on the patches and fished them for tarpon but no hook-ups.  We did some light spin fishing for trout and bagged 3 nice fish.  My neighbor smoked them up for us and we had them tonight, they were excellent.

Captain Al Lorenzetti and Tim C. Smith

4/5/2004

The wind has been blowing but the weather is nice and warm.  Wind however, especially out of the west does not bode well for the fishing in SW Florida.  I went out exploring today.  I searched for the permit but water conditions were rotten and muddy.  I worked the shoals and grass beds for 3 nice trout all about 3 to 4 pounds.  They were really nice size for down here.  Chartreuse worked really well.  Tim Smith is coming in tonight and we will hunt the permit and tarpon tomorrow, weather permitting.

Captain Al Lorenzetti

3/30-31/2004

I fished with Charlie Cannizero who was visiting with me from the East Coast of Florida to do some permit and tarpon fishing on the West Coast.  We had a great time with the fish with permit up to almost 40 pounds and tarpon up to 100 pounds.  On 3/30 we hooked up about 10 permit and boated 8.  We also jumped two tarpon that spit the hook after a few jumps.  We actually had a permit and a tarpon hooked up at the same time.  Today, 3/31 we did a short day had hooked and boated 6 permit.  The weather was good and we had a good time.  We went out last night and had cocktails at the Hilton and dinner at Konrad's restaurant on Marco Island.  We both had a great time fishing together and having a few laughs.  It doesn't get much better.

CLICK BELOW TO SEE VIDEO CLIPS OF THE PERMIT ACTION

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Captain Al Lorenzetti

3/28/2004

The wind finally stopped and we headed to the permit grounds with Wes, Woody, Scott and yours truly.  We finally found the fish after a couple of hours or searching.  They were very spooky today and not on a good feed.  We hooked up four and got two to the boat.  It was a tough day but a lot of fun.  There were a lot of tarpon in the area but the mackerel made it almost impossible to keep a bait in the water for any amount of time.  We bagged it a little early after enjoying a pleasant day on the water.

Captain Al Lorenzetti

3/27/2004

What a day!  Wes Little and I fished Fiddler's Creek and hooked up with some outrageous fish.  We caught a nice snook about 6 pounds on the way to Snook Bay.  We then fished live shiners and within 10 minutes Wes had a pick up and a fish running off his line.  He set the hook and a 50 pound tarpon skyrocketed for the sky.  We fought him for about 10 minutes and then he made a fast run to our rear and got tangled in the electric motor.  We lost him as a result.  Not to be discouraged, we drifted a live bait in a likely spot and I hooked up with either a huge largemouth bass or snook which I am sure went over 10 pounds minimum.  I never got a good look at him so I can't identify for sure but it got me down to the bottom and into some fallen timber and wrapped my line and broke off.  It was a good fish.  We gave the area another drift and I got a run-off and set the hook.  The fish screamed line off my small Penn spinner and I fought it for about 10 minutes.  When we got it close it turned out to be a snook of about 15 pounds.  A real beauty but not as big as the fish we got last evening.  It was incredible fishing in a mud puddle and catching fish that people would pay a small fortune to catch.  Enjoy the photos below.

Captain Al Lorenzetti

3/26/2004

The winds have been blowing for 5 days.  We fished on Wednesday and had to hide in the mangroves.  We netted some bait, live greenies (pilchards and threadfin herring) and then fished them in the back country.  We caught a short grouper and a trout.  It was slow and the blow was horrible.  Yesterday we drove over to Ft. Lauderdale and went to the IGFA Hall of Fame and also Bass Pro Shops which is right next door.  Great places to visit.  I loved the Hall of Fame and spent a bunch of money at Bass Pro.  We then had a great Sushi dinner in the restaurant at Bass Pro and a dozen oysters on the half with a couple of cocktails to round it out.  A real good day with Wes Little.

Today we fished in the way back country of Fiddlers Creek.  We fished in a collapsible boat with an electric motor.  I had two snook up to about 7 pounds.  Wes had a largemouth bass of about 4 or 5 pounds and then he hooked into a monster snook on light spin tackle.  He boated the fish and it was about 20 pounds.  He caught it on a rattle trap lure we were slow trolling behind the boat.  I did not have the camera with me but it was a great fight with 3 or 4 jumps.  A fun afternoon in the back on a very windy day.  There is always a good place to fish down here.

Captain Al Lorenzetti

3/22/2004

It was another great day of permit fishing.  Wes Little, his friend Larry and I headed out again to the hotspot.  We found big permit cruising the area.  We had a ball hooking up 10 fish and boating 8 of them.  Two of the fish were over 40 pounds.  We were down to the last bait and the wind picked up pretty strongly so we headed back to Cape Romano and fished live geenies that we netted in the morning.  We caught a trout and broke off some mackerel.  We then called it a day when the wind was howling.

See the new video clip of permit fishing below on the 3/21 report

Captain Al Lorenzetti

3/21/2004

Today was the best yet.  Wes and I had a banner day with the big permit.  We caught the most and the biggest of this fishing season.  We had 12 fish to the boat up to about 45 pounds and pulled the hook or broke off six others.  It was action all day and the weather was beautiful.  Unbelievable fishing for these magnificent fish.  We had some friends fishing the same area with us.  Bob Herman, Harry and Bill on one boat and Bob's buddy Al was fishing his boat with a couple of guests.  Everyone was hooking up with fish.  We ran out of bait and Bob gave us some more live crabs to fish.  We then hooked up 5 more times and ran out of that bait and ended the day a little early.  No complaints on my part as Wes and I were beat from fighting so many fish.

PERMIT VIDEO CLIP 56k MODEM

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Captain Al Lorenzetti

3/19/2004

We went back to the permit grounds today.  The weather was excellent and good for searching for permit.  We connected on the first fish we sighted.  We had them good till about noon and then they disappeared.  Wes, Bob, Woody and I made up the crew.  We boated 6 of 7 fish and broke one off.  We did some near-shore fishing about midday and caught some jacks and mackerel.  We then headed back to the permit grounds but they weren't there.  We ran to the tarpon hole and would you believe it, we found more permit.  It was a very productive, beautiful and fun day with a great crew.  We will do it again tomorrow, somebody had to.

Captain Al Lorenzetti

3/18/2004

Today was another great fishing day.  Wes Little and I did the trip.  We headed out of Marco Island, Caxambas Pass and went looking for bait.  Down here bait is something called white bait which consists of Greenies and Threadfin Herring.  We spotted a school being harassed by Spanish mackerel and pelicans diving on them from above.  I threw the cast net on them and we loaded up with a couple hundred of the beautiful little swimmers.  We then headed for the permit area.  The wind was blowing about 20 out of the east so we didn't have any luck spotting the fish in the rough water.  We headed for the sand islands south of Cape Romano.  We anchored up close to the island so we could toss live bait into the trough right against the sand.  We did that and had a ball catching big jacks, bluefish to 4 pounds, ladyfish, trout to 3 pounds and to top it off jumped a 150 pound tarpon that took my little bait on a light spin outfit.  He threw the bait and almost leaped to the boat.  It was exciting.  The winds let up and the tide changed so we headed to the permit grounds again but now with better conditions.  We spotted fish right away.  We made a perfect cast with a live crab, just in front of the nose of a big fish.  He ate it like a champ and ran off about 125 yards of line against a tough drag.  We had a blast from then on boating six fish up to 40 pounds.  We kept one fish as they are great table fare and my father was dying to have some fresh fish to eat.  We headed for the barn and left the fish biting.  It was a great day.

Captain Al Lorenzetti

3/14/2004

The weather was tough for the past few days.  It got cold and windy and the water got churned up.  We fished in the back country and caught the usual assortment of fish, jacks, ladyfish, small snook, small redfish, catfish, Spanish mackerel etc.  We explored some new areas and found some good fishing spots for future fishing forays.  On Saturday things started to clean up and we headed to the tarpon grounds down in Gullivan Bay south of Cape Romano.  Our old hot spot from last week was dry, no fish showing at all and the wind was still blowing some.  We decided to work the shoals south of the Cape where the water is shallow and not as choppy in a wind.  We found a pass that was loaded with tarpon and permit.  We fished them for half a day but couldn't hook up.  Yesterday we headed back there and found the fish still plentiful.  I fished with Wes, Jason and Jesse "Fitz".  We found the right bait and hooked up with some big permit.  We boated several big fish from 25 to 35 pounds.  They put up and awesome battle.  It was a beautiful and successful fishing day even if we couldn't hook up one of the big tarpon that were rolling around us.

Captain Al Lorenzetti

3/7/2004

We fished today on a beautiful day and had a ball catching big tarpon.  The ocean was flat and the water was clean.  We saw tarpon rolling on the shoals off of Cape Romano.  I tried to entice one with a fly but they wouldn't take my offering.  We found live bait in the morning coming out of Marco Island.  I netted a bunch of threadfin herring and it turns out that the live bait made the day.  We got into the Gullivan Bay area where we have been fishing for the past couple of weeks.  Once again the big tarpon were rolling and feeding.  I tossed a live bait near one and he inhaled it immediately.  It was a great fight and lasted about 40 minutes at the end of which Craig and I were totally shot.  What a magnificent animal a big tarpon is.  This one was about 100 to 125 pounds.  It is tough to guess exactly but I lip gaffed it and pulled it over the side and I know it was every bit of 100 pounds and then some.  We took the trophy scale and celebrated.  Later in the day we hit the lumps by Cape Romano and caught a few redfish.  Doc, Susie, Martin and Craig along with LC the Jack Russel terrier also caught a nice fish.  It was another great day of fishing.

Captain Al Lorenzetti

3/5/2004

We fished yesterday with Craig, Doc, Suzie and Elsie the Jack Russel Terrier.  We headed for the Tarpon grounds and had some fun.  We jumped one big fish about 100+ pounds, had another come to the top after a bait on the kite but either missed it or decided he didn't want it at the last minute.  A kingfish bit off the other live bait and a shark took the remaining.  No fish in the boat but a good time and Elsie is so cute.

Today, Craig and I hooked up with Wes, Bob and Annie.  We headed into a small bay in the middle of Marco Island.  We caught the heck out of ladyfish and jacks.  We had a bunch of small tarpon in the area and so we set out some baits.  One fish took a cut bait and bit through the leader.  We returned Wes, Bob and Annie to the dock.  Craig and I headed out and found a great fishing spot.  A local captain shared some of his knowledge and set us on to the spot.  It was excellent.  We were all alone in the Mangroves and we connected with a nice snook and a keeper redfish.  It was just a beautiful spot to fish and I thank Captain Bob for the information.  It was a couple of good days of fishing.  We are heading for the tarpon grounds tomorrow.  The winds are supposed to be calm so we hope for the best.

Captain Al Lorenzetti

3/3/2004

Today was a great day of fishing with Wes, Jason and Craig.  It was a tough week with lots of wind and we didn't fish for a while.  Today however the wind subsided and we headed for the fishing grounds south of Cape Romano.  We first fished the back country in the Ten Thousand Island area and had fun with some big jacks.  When the wind let up at about noon, we headed out into the Gulf where we had seen big tarpon on previous trips.  We set up and drifted live baits and chunks.  We first hooked up with a bonnet head shark and fought him to the boat and released him.  About a half hour later the line started peeling off the heavy spinning outfit (Penn 6500 and Loomis 3 piece Escape rod) and a 100 to 125 pound tarpon went flying high.  Jason fought the fish for about 20 minutes.  We got him next to the boat and Craig held the leader.  I tried to get a hand gaff into the lower jaw but the fish wanted no part of it and took off flying into the air once again soaking the whole crew.  We worked him back to the boat again and this time he won his freedom but not before we took a scale for a trophy.  It was a great day and that tarpon was certainly a magnificent fish.  I can't wait to get back there again.

Captain Al Lorenzetti

2/23/2004

The weather finally heated up and the bait and fish showed with the improved conditions.  I fished with Wes and Vinny on Sunday and then Wes, Vinny and Scott today.  We had a great day yesterday 2/22 catching about six huge redfish from 25 to 35 pounds and breaking off a few.  These fish were magnificent and certainly some of the largest that inhabit the Southwest Florida coast.  We also spotted big tarpon and permit in the same area.  The tarpon were up to about 150 pounds and we drifted over a pair of permit that were at least 35 pounds.  We couldn't do anything with the tarpon or permit.  We headed back to the same area today and didn't see any reds but the tarpon and permit were there.  We got one tarpon to hit a swimming plug and he destroyed the plug and we didn't get the hook into him.  It was all very exciting however, seeing them pushing water and jumping around the boat. 

Captain Al Lorenzetti

2/14/2004

I have been very busy lately and have not had time to update the page.  I did a few trips out of Marco Island with Jason Little, Chuck, Paul Krause and Tim Smith.  We had fun catching a mixed bag of fish mostly around Cape Romano.  With Jason and Chuck we caught a bunch of ladyfish. On the trip with Paul we had a couple of pompano and Spanish mackerel.  On 2/10 Tim Smith and I had a good day catching a couple if keeper trout and a couple of big sheepshead and had a ball with jacks up to about 4 pounds.  We also had a bunch of Spanish mackerel.  Tim and I went to the Miami Boat Show for two days.  I can't describe how incredible the show was.  It is a huge event with over 2300 exhibitors and hundreds of boats.  The New York Boat Show is a joke compared to this event.  If you really want to buy a boat or any kind of accessories you should make it your business to go to this show.  I got to see the unveiling of the new Mercury 4-stroke line of engines.  They are simply awesome and nothing else on the market comes close to it's performance and uniqueness of design.  It is called "Verado" and will be available in April in 200, 225, 250 and 275 horsepower options.

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Captain Al Lorenzetti

1/29/2004

Wes Little and I had some fun today fishing on Cape Romano which is south of Marco Island.  We beached the boat on a sand Island and fished around its perimeter looking for snook and redfish that hang around in the deep holes near the island.  We caught a snook and a redfish and had a good time.  It was chilly in the morning but then warmed up to about 75.  We then headed inshore to Robert's Bay which is a hot spot for big ladyfish.  We had a blast catching about 10 ladyfish up to about 3 pounds.  We fed a small one to the pelican.  He tried to get every one that we brought to boat side.

Captain Al Lorenzetti