Offshore fishing can be even more tempting than the backwater, but the choices are so many that it is a proven statistic that one in four anglers become schizophrenic in May. My wife thinks that all fishermen are insane to begin with, but that is another topic.

Grouper and snapper fishing is excellent in May, but these two stable, local fisheries are often overlooked as anglers choose to test their mettle against more sporting adversaries such as cobia or permit. Both cobia and permit are found on wrecks anywhere from a mile from shore and out 50 miles or more. Both fish also fight well and are susceptible to fishing with artificials or flies. There, the resemblance ends.

Cobia are the bulls of the wrecks: strong, stubborn and a little dumb. Permit are the athletes: fast, a bit delicate and very spooky. Permit are seldom kept while cobia are a prized food fish that anglers actually should consider releasing more often. Even though both fish are commonly in the 20- to 30-pound class, cobia are usually fished with heavy tackle, while permit are pursued with 10-pound conventional gear or fly rods. When you consider all of this, it seems that sport isn’t as much a consideration for cobia anglers.

The permit’s favorite food is a crab, but sporting anglers use jigs or flies. Cobia also like crabs, but also eat eels, pinfish, catfish, jacks, many lures, chumbags, old shoes, the family pet, or possibly anything else that falls overboard. Unless, of course, the cobia is in one of those moods where he eats nothing. Then, these stubborn shark clones just swim around your boat while everyone gets dizzy tossing baits to them in vain.

If you just like good eating, May is an ideal month for red grouper. The reds move closer to shore as the water warms, and although undersize fish will still outnumber keepers by 15 to one, most days you’ll catch enough fish for dinner.

Red grouper hang over hard-bottom areas where the best method is to drift until a legal fish is caught, then anchor and hope there is a school. Keep moving until you find big ones. It could take five minutes or five hours. Hang in there if you really have a hankering for fresh grouper.

Just about all baits work for red grouper—frozen sardines, thread herring, pinfish or small grunts. Most people believe that live baits catch larger fish, but if the water is dirty, the opposite might be true.

Once you find big fish, all you need is a stout rod, a strong back and a sharp fillet knife. Bon appétit!

Best Bet: 10,000 ISLANDS

May is an excellent time to visit the river mouths south of Chokoloskee. The Huston, Chatham, Lostmans, and Broad rivers will all be the spring home of some huge snook, giant tarpon and an array of sharks that will take just about any bait, and the sharks might even claim one of the aforementioned gamefish on the end of your line.

Work the shorelines with your favorite plugs for snook. The tarpon tend to roll in the middle of river mouths or at sharp bends farther upstream and will take shallow-running plugs, large jigs or plastic jerkbaits.

The sharks will be everywhere and will snack on a live or fresh-dead ladyfish anytime. Blacktips, hammerheads, bull sharks and others all love ladyfish and will test your strength and your stamina. And don’t be surprised when a big snook or tarpon steals the meal from old toothy. They too have a sweet tooth for the ladies.

FS