On the Water: A nice warm start to the new year
I sure hope everyone had an opportunity to enjoy the beautiful, warm weather that greeted us over the New Year holiday week. Yes, there were a few mornings with dense fog and an overcast day or two, but for the most part the weather was great.
Several days of light winds made for comfortable fishing offshore, near shore and around the gulf passes. Offshore, from 17 to 22 miles, red grouper up to 27 inches were caught along with mangrove snapper to 17 inches. Tipped jigs worked best. Artificial reefs and rock ledges from 8 to 15 miles off shore gave up catches of hogfish, snapper, sheepshead, porgies, a few good size red grouper, plus a number of catch-and-release gag grouper. Live shrimp and tipped jigs worked best.
With hours of very slow tides over the past week, many took advantage of this time to drift fish the gulf passes. Mangrove snapper was the main target, with fish to 15 inches caught with live shrimp, pilchards, small pinfish and tipped jigs. Also around the passes, sheepshead to 17 inches were caught around pilings or structure, with small shrimp and shrimp tipped jigs the best baits. A few pompano were also caught along with a couple black drum.
While trout fishing in Matlacha has been somewhat slow, good reports are coming from areas in mid Pine Island Sound. Good numbers of specks over the 15-inch minimum were reported off both the east and west side of the sound over 3 to 6-foot grass flats, and sand or potholes on the morning low tide. For bait, live shrimp either free lined or fish under a rattling popping cork, Berkley Gulps under a rattling cork, white Redfish Magic, and mid-depth twitch baits worked best.
Redfish reports were sparse, at least for fish in the 18 to 27-inch slot. Undersized fish to 17 inches were plentiful in creeks around St. James City and Sanibel, and a few over-slot fish were hooked near Panther Key. With the warm weather and water temperature climbing over 70 degrees, many anglers targeting the flats for reds hooked up with snook instead. Although season is closed, a few fish to 30 inches put up a great fight and were released to fight another day.
Also with the warm weather, Spanish mackerel are prowling the inshore waters. Look for them over bottom with a sand/ grass mix in 4 to 10-foot depths. Mackerel were reported on either side of the Sanibel Causeway, inside Redfish and Captiva passes and Charlotte Harbor off Bokeelia and Bull Bay. For baits, live shrimp under a popping cork, free lined pilchards, small.
Things should be a bit quieter on the water this week as folks go back to work and holiday visitors head home. Not sure how much longer this unseasonal warm weather is going to hang around, but I suggest that you get out there and take advantage of it.
If you have a fishing report or for charter information, please contact us at 239-283-7960, online at www.fishpineisland.com or email: gcl2-fish@live.com
Have a safe week and good fishin’.