Finally got our first shot at cooler weather this fall and boy did it interrupt fishing for a few days. It really wasn’t that cold but it felt like it on the water after such a long stretch of hot weather. Plus the wind, a strong northeast wind blew hard pushing water out of the bays and making for rough fishing. By the end of the week the winds began to settle down and fishing slowly got back on track.

There wasn’t much to report over the first half of the week — way too rough offshore and just a couple reports inshore. With the extreme low tides and fish spread out over the flats when the front dropped down, they had no choice but to fall in potholes. A few brave fishermen report catching snook, redfish and trout from potholes about the size of a house in the lower sound south of Demere Key. The water surrounding the holes was less than a foot deep, making a small shallow draft boat a necessity. Baits included hand-picked shrimp, cut ladyfish and Redfish Magic jerk baits in a pearl color.

Paul Smith at the Old Pine Island Marina in St. James reports fishing late in the afternoon at mid-week and getting on a pretty good bite. Fishing with Terry Ashby, they paired to catch 15 snook up to 28 inches, one small redfish and five keeper trout with one measuring 25 inches. All fish were caught on Conley Grubs and Culprit Shrimp in a root beer color with a slow twitching retrieve near St. James. Paul also mentioned that he clearly out fished Terry on this outing.

On my boat this week we cancelled our trips for the first part of the week. Tried to go on Monday, went out to get bait at sunrise and quickly realized it just wasn’t worth it with the wind, cold and no water, so we rescheduled. By the end of the week the weather was better and fishing wasn’t bad. We caught limits of really fat trout from 16 to 18 inches over grass flats in 5 to 7 feet of water off the east end of Bokeelia. Ladyfish, a few mackerel and the largest bluefish I have seen in awhile were also caught from the area. All were caught on live shiners (pilchards) free lined on a 3/0 Owner circle hook.

We also tried a couple grouper holes in Charlotte Harbor and put one gag that measured 24 inches in the boat. We caught another half dozen shorts with a couple that were painfully close to legal and lost a couple bigger fish that broke us off. All were hooked on 4 to 6-inch live pinfish. I have also heard a few rumors of bigger gags caught by anglers trolling in the sound and a short distance off the beaches. That’s a good sign they are moving in.

As much as I hate to say, it’s the last week of trout season in our waters. The season is closed November and December. On the plus side, we still have until the end of the week to go catch some. Trout fishing has been good all year and getting better, I think they are finally recovering from several years of red tide that really decimated the population. We are catching bigger trout on average and anglers are reporting a lot more fish over 20 inches.

The end of season could go out with a bang. Trout really like the water a little cooler and the temperature has fallen over the past week. Plus there is still plenty of bait fish out there, look for them hanging over the deeper grass flats gorging on the bait while it’s here. Once the water gets cold all the little bait fish move offshore and head south. For action and quantity, fishing these deeper flats with live bait, soft plastics, spoons or mid-depth lures is the way to go. The trout can average in size, but generally they school in a size group. Catch one 18-inch fish and chances are good you will catch more of similar size. If you want to target bigger fish a better option would be to work the shallow flats and nearby potholes early and late in the day. Here it’s hard to beat a top water lure, something that imitates a small mullet like a Zara Spook (one of my all time favorites). The larger fish are often loners so it requires covering a lot of ground to catch one. Once you hear that distinctively loud pop as they inhale your bait on the surface you will quickly learn that all that casting was more than worth it!

Alright, last week, let’s go catch some trout!

If you have a fishing story or photo that you would like to share or for charter information, please contact us at (239)283-7960 or www.fishpineisland.com. Have a safe week and good fishin’.