Fishing improves with warming trend
This past week had a cold windy start, but going into the weekend we were happy with a nice warming trend and a soft breeze. The water temperatures dipped pretty low with the cold but as the week progressed the fish were slowly coming around. The water temperature doesn’t rise as quickly as the air, early in the week the water was still too cold but by week’s end the reports were getting better each day.
Anglers are locating good numbers of sheepsheads, but the bite was pretty slow for most. For whatever reason fishermen found it difficult to get on good steady sheepsheads action. We had the same results on my boat over several days; we found plenty of big fish in south Matlacha Pass and northern Pine Island Sound, but never could get a solid bite established. We would catch a few, but it was an unexpectedly slow bite. Sheepies were reported along the docks inside Captiva and Redfish Pass and the old Phosphate Dock at Boca Grande Pass. We found ours on oyster bars in Matlacha Pass and hard bottom island shorelines and structure in the Sound. Those fishing from land reported sheepsheads under the draw and third bridges in Matlacha, the Bokeelia fishing pier and the Sanibel fishing pier.
Trout fishing started out slow early in the week then gained momentum heading into the weekend as each day brought warmer water temperatures. Captain Gary Clark reports steady trout action in sand potholes four to six feet in depth north of the power lines in the Sound. Live shrimp under a bobber and Redfish Magic soft plastics in white was the favored baits. These fish were averaging fourteen to sixteen inches with a few near twenty inches mixed in. Captain Shawn McQuade also reports good trout action at the end of the week in the southern Sound. He was working potholes on the shallow turtle grass where he found a good number of fish near twenty inches. On my boat we caught trout up to twenty inches in south Matlacha Pass and around Bokeelia. In Matlacha Pass a freelined live shrimp was the ticket and in the Sound near Bokeelia they quickly inhaled a shrimp under a popping cork but ignored both free lined shrimp and soft plastics. Each day the bite was slow coming until mid day then the bite really turned up after noon. We caught a wide assortment of other critters including grouper (all undersize) flounder, lizard fish, blowfish, ladyfish, catfish, crabs and lots of little redfish. This time of year it’s fun just to guess what the next fish is going to be.
Shallow draft skiffs, canoes and kayaks continue to report consistent redfish action on the turtle grass flats and potholes near Pineland in the Sound. We had plenty of low water, all day, every day last week making for perfect shallow water fishing. Again the bite was best from late morning on after the Florida sun warmed things up. Redfish to twenty-five inches were caught on live shrimp, DOA shrimp and Gulp shrimp in new penny and natural colors. Some of the potholes were loaded with nice trout and a couple flounder were also caught
Not sure what the weather man will bring us in the upcoming week, but if the water continues to warm we should soon see much more consistent fishing. I did not realize how cold the water had gotten over the last front until Friday while fishing deep water around oyster bars in Matlacha Pass. We came across a huge school of big ladyfish and they appeared stunned from the cold, they were extremely lethargic, very slow moving and not interested in food at all. Those are characteristics you just don’t see with ladyfish; usually they are moving a hundred miles an hour and inhaling everything in sight. A few more sunny days and we should be back on track, a week or so of steady temperature will go a long way to bring up the water temperature and get the fish active.
If you have a fishing story or for charter information, please contact us at 239-283-7960 or: www.fishpineisland.com. Have a safe week and good fishin’.