On the Water: Fall fishing means change is in the air, and water
The first full week of autumn greeted anglers with ever so slightly cooler temperatures, occasional showers and O.K. fishing.
A few anglers took advantage of the cooler early morning hours and found snook, redfish and trout active just after sunrise over shallow flats. Top water lures and flies were getting hit aggressively in south Matlacha Pass and Pine Island Sound south of Pineland.
For those looking for some good eating, mangrove snapper was the best option with fish to 15 inches caught throughout the inshore waters. Small live baits, including pilchards, herring, pinfish and shrimp, were the best choice while fishing sand holes, oyster bars, shorelines or around structure.
Those that know where to look are locating redfish schools in both Pine Island Sound and Charlotte Harbor. Schools are ranging in size from 50 to several hundred with most of the fish oversized in the 30-inch range. Smaller reds were caught around oyster bars and potholes near Buck Key and south of Demere Key across the sound, under mangroves and in sand holes on low water.
A few oversized snook were caught and released around Redfish Pass while drifting live bait on the falling tide. Snook were also reported at Blind Pass while either drifting the channel or fishing the docks. Live baiters hooked snook off the eastern and western walls of Charlotte Harbor and mid-Pine Island Sound. The majority of the fish are running undersized but a few slot or keeper-size fish were caught. From shore, snook were hooked after dark from both the Matlacha Drawbridge and the Sanibel Pier, freelining live handpicked shrimp or pinfish or casting red and white buck tail jigs.
If you have kids on board or just looking for action, open water areas inshore are the place to go. A mix of mackerel, bluefish, ladyfish, trout and others are feeding on schooling bait in 5 to 9-foot depths.
A few areas worth noting included Bokeelia Shoals, inside Redfish Pass near the channel and off Marker 13 south of St. James City.
Offshore, lane snapper and grouper were reported southwest off Sani-bel’s Knapp’s Point in depths from 55 to 75 feet. The best bet was drifting over areas with hard or coral bottom. Snapper and grunts with a few legal-sized grouper were caught west of Boca Grande Pass over ledges and hard bottom.
Although days are getting shorter, thunderstorms popped up about every afternoon last week. The water has cooled down a lot in recent weeks and the daily thunderstorms should subside soon. We are getting into that time of year where you can fish early in the day, late in the day, or if you like, fish from sun up to sun down.
If you have a fishing report or for charter information, please contact us at 239-283-7960, www.fishpineisland.com or email gcl2fish@live.com
Have a safe week and good fishin’.