Windy days are often the best days on the water
Fishing conditions in Southwest Florida changed almost daily over the past week. We had it all, sunny perfect days with little to no breeze, very windy days with small craft warnings, all day rain days, warm and humid days and cool days. You can sure tell winter is fast approaching.
Over the week anglers that made it out on the water found that the bite was not red hot, but there was a variety of fish to catch. Spanish mackerel were caught in Charlotte Harbor between Bokeelia and Boca Grande Pass, just outside Blind Pass and shore bound fishermen hooked up from the Sanibel Pier. Look for birds and dolphins working open water areas to find the macks. Good size sheepsheads were also reported from Blind Pass and the Sanibel pier.
A few tripletails were sighted under crab trap floats not to far of the shore of Sanibel west of Knapp’s point. They seldom resist a live shrimp rigged to look and swim natural when cast up current and allowed to pass by their nose. A few flounder were caught from the beach and they were also found inshore in sand potholes and near dock pilings.
Captain Gary Clark reports catching a mix of mackerel, bluefish, trout and ladyfish on grass flats averaging four to seven feet near the B span of the Sanibel Causeway and inside Captiva between Buck Key and Blind Pass. Redfish Magic soft plastics in white or pearl color were the bait of choice. Captain Clark also reports catching a few pompano near the Causeway
Although its catch and release until the first of the year anglers are scoring with good action on sea trout. On the calm days fishing top water lures took trout up to four pounds along the shallow edges of sand bars in the lower sound and oyster bars in Matlacha Pass. Action was also good in the Sound near Galt Island while fishing potholes with live pilchards and soft plastics. Trout season should kick off in high gear the first of the year.
With both snook and trout season now closed, the focus has turned to redfish on the flats. We are catching them but not in great numbers, all the reds over the past week on my boat came from Matlacha Pass. We caught several on one day around oyster bars in the northern Pass on the falling tide. Most were small but we did manage one better fish at around twenty-three inches. These were all caught on free-lined shiners on a small circle hook.
Our best redfish day and best day of the week for that manner came on the windiest day of the week. I really like fishing the wind and concentrating on shorelines and Islands where the wind and current are pushing into the shore. After a slow start and a couple moves we hit the jackpot and had a great red bite for better than a half hour. There were several double hook-ups with fish ranging in size from twenty-two to twenty-eight inches. Live pinfish from three to five inches were the bait of the day and free lined or under a bobber both worked great. The bite didn’t slow it just stopped completely, but that was OK, it was late in the afternoon and time to head home anyway.
Also around the oyster bars we are catching really big trout for this time of year, a few big bluefish and an occasional snook or flounder.
The weather for the next several months will dictate our fishing but we should have a big variety to choose from. I have noticed a lot of sheepsheads moving inshore and pompano along bar edges, plus some of the biggest gag grouper of the year should be making their push inshore. When you go fishing in December you just have to take what the weather gives you on any given day.
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’.