Warmer weather brings more tarpon
Tarpon anglers were waiting for a good dose of warm weather for the arrival of the silver king and they got their wish over the past week. Tarpon were reported in increasing numbers as the seas calmed by mid week. Sharks and cobia were also in the mix with tarpon while trout, snook and mackerel rounded out the action around the Island.
Finally we had warm days with light winds, the perfect combination for locating tarpon. Many anglers took advantage of the mornings and located pods of fish along the beaches off Sanibel near Knapp’s Point and Captiva near Blind Pass. Inshore, tarpon were scattered in Charlotte Harbor and near Captiva Rocks in the Sound. Captain Gary Clark reported that once the wind settled down tarpon were sighted rolling and free-jumping in good numbers off the Sanibel Beach. He hooked several over a couple mornings on live pilchards, other boats jumped fish on cut bait soaked on bottom. In the Sound the best bet was fishing cut bait on bottom or fishing a small live blue crab under a float, in the Harbor a big live thread herring was the bait to use. Massive schools of herrings moved into the Harbor and north Matlacha Pass, that’s what the tarpon are feeding on, look for the bait schools and chances are a tarpon will not be too far off.
Despite a good showing for tarpon, fishing in general was a bit of a challenge much of the week. Unfavorable mid day tides with very little water movement left a lull for several hours each day where it was just plain hard to get a bite. Morning fishing was good and mid to late afternoon was decent but in between was just poor, that’s what happens when we transition from two back to four tide days.
Captain Kenneth Honc reports trout over grass bottom in four to six feet of water near Demere Key with an average size fourteen to seventeen inches. Mackerel, ladyfish and small sharks were also caught with the trout. Also early in the week he reports catching redfish near oyster bars in the northern Sound on live pilchards.
Captain Gary Clark found trout fishing reliable in the mornings in the southern Sound near the power lines and on the flats near the Sanibel Causeway with fish up to twenty-one inches caught on live pilchards and white redfish magic soft plastics.
Captain Cliff Simer caught trout up to twenty-two inches in northern Buzzard Bay in Matlacha Pass and over grass flats near Bokeelia, he also found a few early morning snook with the largest measuring thirty two inches caught and released on a live pilchard.
On my boat the fishing mirrored what I mentioned above, good early, then terrible, then good again. We had a couple mornings were the big mackerel were just out of control in the Harbor, as fast as you could get a bait in the water. We sighted a good number of tarpon in the Harbor although we weren’t tarpon fishing, we tarpon fished one afternoon near Useppa Island and jumped two and landed one large poon around one-hundred forty pounds. A dead shad fished on bottom was the bait of choice. I witnessed a boat next to us hook and land a cobia that looked to go about twenty-five pounds near Bokeelia, then the next day fishing the same area we had a cobia come around our boat. The cobia quickly inhaled a large live thread herring dropped alongside the boat and weighed twenty-four pounds on the Boga-Grip. We caught trout when the water was moving; we finished up the day one afternoon with the same angler boating twenty-four and twenty-five inch “gator” trout on consecutive cast. We were actually expecting to hook a snook as we were fishing a pothole were we had sighted several big ones.
And my favorite trip of the week was watching long time client Jim Dougal win the battle with a big snook. Jim has been fighting health related issues and this is the first time he has been on the boat since fall. Knowing how much he loves to fish and catch snook it was great to see him back in the game and pull in a big thirty-three inch snook at the end of the day. Way to go Jim!
If you’ve been waiting for the right time to go chase those tarpon, the right time is here. They are moving in and it should only get better for the rest of the month. In case you haven’t noticed it’s getting warm out there (after the winter we had you won’t hear me complain) the best bet is to fish early or late. More often than not you’re best time to catch a tarpon is when they are most active from sunrise to late morning or late afternoon to sunset. Mother’s Day is over and behind us so put away the “honey do” list and go catch a tarpon!
If you have a fishing report of for Charter Information, please contact us at:
Phone: 239-283-7960. Website: www.fishpineiland.com E-mail: gcl2fish@live .com. Have a safe week and good fishin’.