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Good fishing ahead of holiday cool down

5 min read

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving holiday. Rain followed by wind and cold moved in over the holiday and put a damper on fishing for a few days. However the week leading up to Thanksgiving the weather was beautiful and fishing was really good.

Offshore the grouper bite has picked up on both reds and gags. Red grouper up to 12 pounds were caught over hard bottom around the 70-foot mark southwest of Captiva. Live pinfish and squid/jig combo’s worked best while drift fishing. A few snapper and grunts were also caught from the area. Trolling has been the way to go for gag grouper in depths from 30 to 50 feet. They were caught from the Edison Reef south of Sanibel up the Coast to ledges west of Boca Grande Pass. One angler reported a good catch of gags up to 29 inches in 45 feet of water. They were slow trolling Bomber CD 30 lures in a red/ white pattern over ledges. Keeper size gags were also reported over ledges around 35 feet west of Redfish Pass.

Mackerel continue their migration down the coast; look for them feeding on the bait schools offshore. A few king mackerel up to 12 pounds were caught on the same lipped lures intended for grouper and several were hooked over artificial reefs. Spanish mackerel are everywhere offshore; they are constantly moving and following the bait. Fish up to six pound were caught trolling spoons west of Boca Grande Pass in the ship channel and near the Edison Reef. Huge schools of bonito (little tuny) were also found busting up bait pods all along the coast.

Inside Boca Grande Pass about a half mile into Charlotte Harbor boats were trolling up big Spanish mackerel from five to six pounds and a couple kings to 38 inches were also caught. Kings were also reported in the tarpon holes of Boca Grande Pass with the best bites on the incoming tide. Just before Thanksgiving Spanish mackerel were thick just north of Bokeelia in the Harbor. Boats trolling or casting spoons between markers 85 and 89 report nonstop action on macks up to five pounds. (We fished near marker 87 a couple times and the mackerel bite was crazy). Captain Cliff Simer also reports a hot mackerel bite in the same area of the Harbor and also had several jumps from a five foot tarpon that ate a ladyfish. Spanish mackerel catches were also reported on the Gulf side of the Sanibel Causeway and land bound anglers were catching them from the Sanibel Pier. Captain Gary Clark found a feeding frenzy of trout, mackerel, bluefish and ladyfish over the deeper grass flats near St. James over several days. The fish are feeding on small baitfish and white Redfish Magic soft plastics were instantly hammered when tossed into the flurry. Captain Clark also reports plenty of big snook showing up on shorelines near the mouth of the Caloosahatchee River but they have been unwilling to eat.

On my boat we had our best snook fishing of the fall season the week ahead of the holiday, not for numbers of fish, but for size. We caught fish from 28 to 32 inches in the keeper size and one over size fish measuring 37 inches. The bite wasn’t on fire, but we were patient and worked holes where I knew there were fish. We would get one or two chances from each hole and more often than not bigger fish, then it was time to move to the next. We were fishing live pilchards and pinfish with the pilchards taking most of the abuse. By mid week the bite began to slow as we were getting into unfavorable tides. Although I thought we would catch a few more, we only caught a half dozen redfish with a huge size variation from rats measuring seventeen inches to a whopper measuring thirty-three inches. I have been seeing scattered reds around the same holes as the snook, so I really expected a few more. We did catch flounder just about every day and they were good size, big enough for a couple decent filets. They were also caught with the snook on the same baits. Our best bite was on the afternoon incoming tide, we were fishing the northeast side of Pine Island Sound and the eastern shore of Charlotte Harbor near Two-Pines. Captain Shawn McQuade reported a similar scenario in mid-Pine island Sound were snook and redfish were caught in potholes and along bars near Demere Key. For bait he had better results with live pinfish and ballyhoo and the best bite was on the rising tide.

No doubt with the cooler weather that moved in over the weekend fishing will change. I am sure it will push some baitfish farther south and that’s not a bad thing. With the mild temperatures bait has been absolutely thick everywhere, to the point where you wonder why in the world would a fish eat a piece of plastic or a fish with a hook in it when there is so much good food readily available. It’s always easier to catch a fish when the food supply is in demand.

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