Look for hungry fish around the bait schools
The past week of fishing was kind of unusual, it started windy, and then the temperatures dropped slightly followed by several absolutely beautiful days. However it wasn’t the weather that was unusual, it was the fishing in general. Fishing wasn’t great nor was it terrible, actually on some days it was darn good, it just wasn’t on the days you would have expected good fishing. What I mean is, on some of the days early in the week when the tides were really favorable the bite was off, then towards the end of the week when conditions were less than ideal, the fish were again hungry.
Also this week, the large schools of baitfish have really invaded the inshore waters. Huge schools of both pilchards and thread herrings were easy to locate over the deeper grass flats as the pelicans were having a daily picnic while dive bombing the fleeing fish. Those anglers looking to cast net a live well full of bait won’t find it much easier than right now.
Some of the best fishing also occurred around the small fry. Trout, mackerel, bluefish, cobia and small sharks were caught in good numbers in water depths from 6 to 9 feet in Charlotte Harbor, between the intracoastal channel and Captiva Pass in the sound and on the gulf side of the Sanibel Causeway. Look for areas with a grassy bottom with large sand patches mixed. If the wind isn’t howling, the water clarity should allow an angler to easily tell the sand and grass areas with a pair of polarized sunglasses. The mackerel are averaging 18 to 24 inches and anchoring up with a chum bag or chumming with crippled “livies” will get the fish concentrated behind your boat. Once the action gets going, bigger fish might also join in on the party. This happened on my boat as we had a small boy, Ethan, on board that just wanted action so we got the mackerel and trout going when we were pleasantly surprised. Cobia began following the hooked fish to the boat and it wasn’t long before the first of three was hooked up. The largest of the three was 32 inches to the fork of the tail, a tad below the 33-inch legal minimum but a great fight on light tackle, especially for little Ethan who was used to catching whatever kind of fish you catch in Ohio. After the cobia, a couple 3-foot sharks took the baits and again gave us some drag-screaming action.
Once the winds settled, mackerel were also reported along the channel side of the long bar outside Boca Grande Pass and in the pass itself and on the gulf side of Captiva Pass.
For most, it was a pretty tough week snook fishing, even early in the week when the tides and conditions were favorable, the bite just wasn’t up to par. Most holes, we would catch one or two under-sized fish then the bite would turn off – you never could get a consistent bite going. On my boat we managed one good fish at 33 inches at mid-week and all the rest fell below the minimum allowable size.
There were reports of a few good fish caught near the mouth of the Caloosahatchee River and also from the Sanibel Pier after dark where a few oversize redfish were also caught and released. There was also one report from John Hobbs of a 37-inch snook caught and released from Jug Creek in Bokeelia.
Most of the redfish caught were in singles and pairs coming from potholes and sand depressions near the mangrove shorelines in the sound and around oyster bars in Matlacha Pass. While snook fishing we caught reds between 21 and 24 inches, as mentioned not in bunches but one or two a day.
This past week held many of those days where you had to abandon your target species and go with what’s biting or at least adjust your game plan. It’s getting near the end of snook season and, of course, that’s often our main target, however, if the tide is not moving and the water is flat calm, you can quickly get the sense that it is a waste of time. You have a couple choices on these slow tide days, you can look for areas where the water is moving and continue the pursuit of snook or you can go fish for other species.
We had to employ these tactics several times this week and luckily they worked out. If the tide is dead inshore and there is going to be any water moving anywhere, it is going to be in or near the passes leading to the gulf. We did not land any large snook but we salvaged a couple hours of fishing time catching snook near the passes until the tide began moving inshore again. On another day, we dropped the snook fishing and went after mackerel and whatever else would bite. Again we set up shop not to far inside a pass over some grass flats where we had just a little water moving and the bite started off slow and got progressively better.
So, once again, it often pays to keep your options open – if your target species isn’t cooperating, go after something else for a while, you can always go back after your primary target later. That’s the beauty of fishing here, we have so many options.
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 visit us at www.fishpineisland.com. Have a safe week and good fishin’.