Life s a beach for snook anglers, tarpon fishermen, and those with a taste for big macks. Trout fishing also is pretty good in the bays, but redfish and baitfish have all but disappeared. Meanwhile, fishing in Lake Okeechobee has been getting hotter and hotter when the bass bite normally cools off.

SNOOK: The Bait Box on Sanibel reports awesome snook fishing on island beaches, particularly at Bowman s Beach and Blind Pass.

Capt. Miles Meredith of Cape Tool & Tackle reports great snook fishing around snags along the North Captiva Island shoreline, where his Wednesday party released a 37-incher on the first cast, and also caught a 31-incher among 30 or more slightly undersize, drag-pulling sons of a gun.

TARPON: Lehr s Economy Tackle reports good tarpon fishing in Pine Island Sound in deeper waters east of the Intracoastal Waterway, from Chino Island north to Captiva Rocks. There also have been reports of a few laid-up tarpon around oyster bars in the mouth of the Caloosahatchee River, between Big Shell Island and Sword Point.

The Bait Box reports tarpon fishing has been strong off Sanibel s big bend, Knapp s Point, north to Johnson Shoals.

Cape Tool reports a concentration of tarpon this week about a mile off Tween Waters Resort on Captiva.

Sunday s Professional Tarpon Tournament Series fifth and final event for the regular season produced 56 hookups, 34 releases and 12 fish brought to the scales by 50 jig-fishing teams. First place and a boat, motor and trailer was taken by Capt. Andy Boyette s Team TarponCharters.com, with a 187-pounder.

Tarpon also are being caught in the deeper holes of Charlotte Harbor by boaters freelining large thread herrings around baitfish schools.

MACKEREL & BLUEFISH: Mark Mettleman, his daughter, Lindsey and her boyfriend, Jon Mahram of Atlanta, spent Tuesday morning catching Spanish mackerel, bluefish and ladyfish in the nearshore Gulf off Sanibel, before coming into flats off Bunche Beach and picking two pompano to 4 pounds out of a school, and also catching some small trout and two bonnethead sharks.

The Bait Box reports Spanish mackerel and bluefish to 24 inches biting in San Carlos Bay, including from the Sanibel end of the causeway s restroom island, as well as along Sanibel beaches.

Capt. Meredith reports lots of huge Spanish about a mile off the barrier island beaches, where he recently caught one about 30 inches long.

King Fisher bay charters out of Fishermen s Village in Punta Gorda report mackerel and bluefish still biting in Charlotte Harbor at the artificial reef below Mangrove Point, and at the Cape Haze Bar between the point of Cape Haze and marker No. 5.

TROUT: Anglers at the Sanibel Causeway have been catching trout, and specks also have been biting on Pine Island Sound grass flats from McIntyre Creek north, according to the Bait Box.

Tim Mettleman and friend John, from Minnesota, caught a half-dozen keeper trout to 18 inches near the Sanibel Causeway islands, after catching bonnethead and blacktip sharks, ladyfish and bluefish off the Sanibel Light with Capt. Rob Modys on Monday. The day before, Capt. Modys and his wife, JoNell, culled six trout to 21 inches from a catch of 30 made near the power lines in Pine Island Sound. All of the trout were caught under floats on live shrimp or small pinfish.

Capt. Meredith reports nice trout mixed with those snook along the barrier island beaches.

King Fisher bay boats have been catching trout on the flats of Charlotte Harbor along the eastern shore and the West Wall. Most are taking shrimp under corks.

REDFISH: Redfish have been tough to come by for tournament anglers, and it s been hot in the Pine Island back country. Capt. Meredith reports catching a couple of oversize fish in northeast Pine Island Sound this week.

MIXED BAGS: Tom Blaine of North Fort Myers has been catching sharks of 2 1/2 to 4 feet in the Caloosahatchee between the Midpoint and Cape Coral bridges. Lehr s also reports a pompano caught on a 17-series MirrOlure, upriver of the Edison Bridge.

The Bait Box is hearing of flounder, undersize gag grouper and outsize goliaths biting at the west end of the Sanibel Causeway s restroom island.

Snapper have been biting for King Fisher customers fishing in creek and canal mouths around Punta Gorda.

OFFSHORE: Steve Baker and Rick Snyderman report a brace of 12-pound red grouper, triggerfish to 134 inches, grunts and two blacktip sharks caught in the area of the 240 Ledge.

Bonita Beach Capt. Dave Hanson took a busman s holiday charter to the Dry Tortugas, where he caught lots of school-size dolphin to 30 inches, plus a 25-pound bull between Key West and Fort Jefferson. The party caught yellowtail and mangrove snapper in 70 feet of water, 15 miles from the Marquesas Keys, at night, and three cero mackerel to 35 inches at sunrise. They lost an estimated 350 pound marlin that hit a light trolling line and covered 200 feet in two leaps, completely out of the water, just like I have always seen on T.V., before breaking off.

Back in local waters last Friday, Hanson guided William Smith, his son, Walker, daughter Audrey and friend Aaron Peets to a catch of nine Spanish mackerel, and two releases of goliath grouper estimated at 60 and 100 pounds on reefs off Bonita Beach. On Monday Grant and Harry Kurtz and friends Joe and Thais Allen culled nine Spanish mackerel to 27 inches out of a bunch that ate freelined shrimp, plus a keeper hogfish and some other panfish caught 17 miles out of New Pass. In the same area Wednesday, Van, Amy, Danielle and Peyton McQueen, Hayden Beach and Dan Neal caught pretty much the same thing, plus a 16-inch mutton snapper.

Fresh water LAKE TRAFFORD: The Immokalee lake has risen an inch or so, but still is far too shallow to launch boats or fish from the pier, which is dry underneath.

LAKE OKEECHOBEE: Roland Martin s Marina in Clewiston reports a tournament last weekend that took five fish worth 27 pounds to win. Almost all anglers fished waters in the main lake, with the best action coming from deep holes in the Pahokee area, including the Airport Hole, No-name Hole and others. Most bass hit worms, but some anglers were Rat-L-Trapping, and all had to be very cautious navigating shallows that sometimes took 40-plus minutes to idle across.

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