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A second fat snook (Centropomus parallelus). The all-tackle record for fat snook is 10 pounds, 14 ounces, from Brazil. Florida doesn’t list a state record for fat snook, only common snook. Photos courtesy Lehr’s Economy Tackle. -
NC State junior Avery Bishop’s snook was one of 35 caught in four days of fishing last week in Blind Pass with his dad, Mark, and cousin. -
Bob Diersing reports Capt. Chris Foust’s redfish sniffed out his cut ladyfish bait in two feet of water at Foster’s Point, in Pine Island Sound. -
West Palm angler Bruce McEwen finally prevailed after this big crevalle jack tried cutting him off on mangrove roots and crab traps in the Two Pines back country, on his Wildfly Charter with Capt. Gregg McKee. -
St. James City Capt. George Grosselfinger reports lots of fun at Chino Island with gator trout, some even bigger than this fatty. -
Bruce Churton’s redfish was one of three caught Wednesday with his daughter-in-law, Alexa, and son Matthew, on their Get Hooked Charter along Estero Bay’s East Wall with Capt. Matt DeAngelis. -
Cleveland, Ohio anglers Matt and Trent Salem caught this big red grouper on their full day charter off Naples on the All In, with A&B Charters Capt. Jim Rinckey. -
Niki Harvey’s snook was one of several caught Saturday on live thread herrings while fishing Wiggins Pass with her husband, Rodney, and friends Char and Rick Mercer. -
Tom Fowler ran 80 miles offshore to find this scamp grouper that weighed a whopping 18 pounds. Photo courtesy Lehr’s Economy Tackle. -
Venice angler Olen Thomas and Dan Carns of Gulf Coast Kayak used paddletail jigs under clacker corks to catch pompano like this, plus nice trout Saturday in north Matlacha Pass. Photo courtesy Lehr’s Economy Tackle -
Denver angler Mary Harpole caught her Big O bass with Roland Martin’s Marina Capt. Jose Betancourt. -
Ten-year-old Elijah Bowman tempted this whopper lane snapper with a dead white bait, 30 miles off Sanibel with his dad, Jeff Chitwood. -
The latest red tide map shows sample concentrations: yellow low; orange medium; red high. -
Just out for Christmas is Capt. Rob Modys’ encyclopedic coverage of how to catch fish in Southwest Florida. Get a personally signed copy at WhatIKnowAboutFishing.com
State sampling for red tide showed the noxious algae present in 34 locations in Lee County, including a potentially fish-killing concentration at Captiva Island. Check out the map in this week’s photo gallery.
– EMAIL YOUR PICS TO BYRON STOUT
The good news is most samples revealed very low, widely scattered concentrations, so fishing should be good for a predicted beautiful weekend.
Offshore, inshore and freshwater reports all were very good, for groupers and snappers, snook, redfish and trout, and bass and crappie.
OFFSHORE: Capt. Jim Rinckey of the A&B Charters fleet out of Naples reports plenty of red grouper and snapper action on full-day trips to depths of 75 to 90 feet out of Gordon Pass, with no signs of red tide. Live pinfish and cut squid have been the go-to baits.
Tom Fowler, Dennis DeWitt, Alan Ringsmuth, and three friends limited on red grouper and also caught 20 nice lane snapper, a gag, and a whopping 18-pound scamp. They ran 80 miles offshore and were dropping metal jigs, sardines, and squid, according to Lehr’s Economy Tackle.
Jeff Chitwood and his son, 10-year-old Elijah Bowman, fished 30 miles off Sanibel in depths from 65 to 70 feet Sunday, boxing a few mangrove and lane snappers, while releasing short red and gag groupers.
The three anglers in the Nebel party, from northern Virginia, all took home keeper red grouper, plus a bunch of lanes, some unusually fat mangrove snapper, and a few vermilion snapper and porgies on their trip to depths of 65 to 70 feet, west-southwest of Boca Grande Pass with King Fisher Capt. John Baines at the helm.
NAPLES: Niki Harvey caught this snook in Wiggins Pass on a live thread herring, and Char Mercer caught an even bigger snook the same way, on a Saturday trip with their respective husbands, Rodney and Rick.
ESTERO BAY: Get Hooked Charter Capt. Matt DeAngelis reports clients have been catching a mixed bag of redfish, snook, spotted seatrout, pompano and sheepshead while fishing live shrimp on quarter-ounce jig heads in spots with clean moving water. He sent in a shot of Alexa, Bruce, and Matthew Churton with a nice redfish caught on the bay’s East Wall.
CALOOSAHATCHEE RIVER: In a first for this column of 35 years, Lehr’s reports not one but two fat snook caught on live sardines in the mouth of the Caloosahatchee. Ninety-nine point something percent of snook caught in Southwest Florida are common snook, Centropomus undecimalis. But Sunday, Alex Henderson, Alex Levine, and Antulio Navarro caught two dandy fat snook, C. parallelus, of 24 and 25-1/2 inches among several of their common cousins. Fat snook are more common on Florida’s East Coast, and this pair might have wandered over during recent water releases from Lake Okeechobee, via the St. Lucie River.
SANIBEL: Mark Bishop, his son, Avery, and his nephew had a very good 15th vacation on Sanibel last week. Over four days they combined for 35 snook, two redfish, and lots of sheepshead in Blind Pass, mostly on live shrimp and Flair Hawk Jigs.
PINE ISLAND SOUND: St. James City Capt. George “Artificials Only” Grosselfinger sent the only report of possible red tide problems, which he suspects have made bigger snook sluggish and less aggressive at striking his favorite topwater baits. The good news is he’s still finding them, and he’s also been catching trout from 23 to 25 inches on paddletail jigs thrown around Chino Island.
Bob Diersing sent in a shot of pal Capt. Chris Foust with a nice red that sniffed out his cut ladyfish bait in two feet of water at Foster’s Point.
MATLACHA PASS: Venice angler Olen Thomas and Dan Carns, of Gulf Coast Kayak in Matlacha, paddled up pompano and upper-slot trout Saturday morning, north of the Matlacha Pass Bridge. They were casting paddletail jigs under clacking cork rigs around oyster bars and on shallow grass flats, according to Lehr’s.
Wildfly Charters Capt. Gregg McKee reports a week of the best tailing redfish tides he’s seen in years around Matlacha. He’s also pulling in more gator trout than ever in northern Matlacha Pass near Charlotte Harbor, where West Palm angler Bruce McEwen had the battle of his life with a big jack on fly, in the Two Pines back country at the northeast corner of the pass.
CHARLOTTE HARBOR: A 38-inch cobia that took a live shrimp freelined at the Charlotte Harbor Reef for the Farucci party, with Capt. Chris Gagnon was the highlight of the week for King Fisher bay boats out of Fishermen’s Village. There also have been Spanish mackerel and sheepshead at the reef, also biting on shrimp. Trout have thinned out on the harbor’s east side flats, but haven’t yet gotten concentrated in the canals of Punta Gorda Isles, where they find warmer waters during cold snaps.
FRESHWATER
LAKE TRAFFORD: Crappie fishing has been awesome this week for boaters on the Immokalee lake, according to Lake Trafford Marina. Ricky Kemp of Felda and his mom caught their limits on Monday. Guides Joey Draple and Cody McClelland found 25-fish limits of specks, plus a few bluegill for their respective parties of two and three, on Tuesday. Dave Puckett and his wife caught 13 on Wednesday. But best of all was the report of 100 specks biting in a one-hour spree Wednesday, around sundown, at the Ann Olesky Park Pier.
LAKE OKEECHOBEE: Roland Martin Marina & Resort Capt. Jose Betancourt reports nice size bass have been biting swim jigs and swimbaits around Grassy Island and flipping heavy jigs on the outside grass lines along Observation Shoal has been good for nice prespawn fish, for those who love to fool their bass with fake baits. And for those who love big numbers of big fish, wild shiners have been even better baits. Crappie fishing also has been very good with jigs or minnows dunked in the Monkey Box area at the south end of Fisheating Bay.
PIC OF THE WEEK
That’s a serious lane snapper, 16 inches, for a serious young man, Elijah Bowman, 10, who ran 30 miles off Sanibel with his dad, Jeff Chitwood, to find it.
FISH TIP
In the St. Nick of time for Christmas is Capt. Rob Modys’ treasure trove of fishing how-to, gleaned from 20 years of guiding, 17 years of fishing instruction with Collier County Adult Education and Bass Pro Shops, and 13 years of hosting weekly three-hour Reel Talk Radio shows on local ESPN. It’s all distilled and illustrated in What I Know About Fishing Southwest Florida. Having fished with Capt. Rob many times, I can personally attest, he knows a whale of a lot. For a personally signed copy of the book, including the inscription of your choice, go to WhatIKnowAboutFishing.com. The book also is available from Amazon ($29.95), or on Kindle ($15).
HOT SPOTS
No. 1: Charlotte Harbor Reef for sheepshead, maybe a big cobia.
No. 2: Two Pines back country for redfish, bruiser jacks.
No. 3: Blind Pass for snook and sheepshead.
No. 4: Chino Island for gator trout.
No. 5: Mouth of the Caloosahatchee for snook.
No. 6: Offshore for groupers and snappers.
No. 7: Lake Trafford for crappie.
LAKE OKEECHOBEE
No. 1: Crappie in the Monkey Box.
No. 2: Observation Shoal for bass.
No. 3: Grassy Island for bass.
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