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These two sheepshead were among eight keepers caught using jig-and-shrimp rigs in Hickory Pass by Steve and Marianna Lukes, on their Monday Get Hooked Charter with Capt. Matt DeAngelis. -
Beth Perz used a gold spoon to tempt this 30-inch Tarpon Bay redfish. -
Bill and Beth Perz use their totally tricked out Gheenoe to slip into area shallows. And then they like to take stealth to another level by wading. -
Capt. George Grosselfinger has caught snook to 45 inches, but he thinks this 42-incher caught Wednesday near Josslyn Island was his heaviest ever. -
New York angler Dean DelleDonne released this 34-inch beauty, and a 28 in the same “unlikely spot” Capt. Grosselfinger released the 42. All hit on white jigs. -
Bob Mignogna’s nice crevalle jack was his toughest conquest, but he also caught one other, plus several snapper, casting a green-and-white Seaducer fly last Friday in Spring Creek. -
Rick Mercer’s grandson, Landry, used a live shrimp to land his first snook, a Southwest Florida angling milestone. -
If there’s a better inshore spot for big mangrove snapper than Karen Theis’s dock off Hurricane Bay, the Fish Finder doesn’t know about it. -
Tom Spar and Capt. Kees VanDerAa with results of a hot red grouper bite aboard the All In, with A&B Charters Capt. Jim Rinckey. -
Nebraska angler Susie Brock put a wild shiner on the hunt for this 6-pound Okeechobee bigmouth, on her trip out of Roland Martin’s Marina & Resort with Capt. Bo White. -
Frank Pollera’s 20-inch snook release started with a live shrimp in southern Estero Bay, on his Fishbuster Charter with Capt. Dave Hanson. -
Joe Pollera’s 17-incher was sheepshead of the day, on his family’s Saturday Fishbuster Charter. -
John Pollera’s 14-inch sheepshead was one of 15 his family caught Saturday in southern Estero Bay, on their Fishbuster trip. He even got his shrimp back.
Possibly gale-force winds starting Friday night will muck up even inshore waters for a while. But that’s not all bad.
Sheepshead fishing is entering prime time, and the pole-striped porgies can sniff out a broken shrimp in Jello, never mind a little turbidity. And species including trout and redfish tend to gang up in canals and boat basins when water temperatures take a dive.
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The blow will even improve offshore angling for sharp-eyed mangrove snapper, which aren’t as suspicious of baited hooks under post-frontal low viz conditions.
ESTERO BAY: Rick Mercer reports pulling several small snook on shrimp from a hole loaded with big sheepshead. But the sheepshead, apparently well-fed, had a lockjaw.
The Pollera boys, Frank, sons Joe and John, and grandson Eric used live shrimp on an all-catch-and-release Fishbuster Charter in southern Estero Bay to boat 15 sheepshead, two jacks, two puffers, and a 20-inch snook, last “chilly, drizzly, Saturday morning.”
Get Hooked Charters Capt. Matt DeAngelis sent in pictures of Minnesota angler Brad Knight with a 30-inch red caught last Thursday at Jack’s Bar, and Steve and Marianna Lukes from Wisconsin, with two of their eight keeper sheepshead, caught Monday in Big Hickory Pass.
SANIBEL: Bill Perz contributed a shot of his wife, Beth, whose 30-inch redfish hit a gold spoon she was casting to mangroves in Tarpon Bay. They combined for three reds, altogether.
PINE ISLAND: St. James City Capt. George Grosselfinger has caught “a few dozen snook over 40 inches,” but he doesn’t think any weighed more than the 42-incher he caught Wednesday morning in Pine Island Sound near Josslyn Island. He weighed the monster in his rubber-coated landing net, and it bottomed out his 30-pound BogaGrip scale. The big surprise was where he found it, with the thermometer plunging under current conditions. Even more surprising were the 34- and 28-inchers his pal Dean DelleDonne pulled from the same spot, where all the fish jumped on white swimbaits.
Jim Vanderveld reports he finally caught one big trout, and then sat back to watch his wife pull in the last half of her dozen, last Friday north of Chino Island. Her secret, according to Mike Westra of Lehr’s Economy Tackle, was using small live pinfish under a clacker float rig.
Over in Matlacha Pass, Wildfly Charters Capt. Gregg McKee reports he has been spotting some massive snook laid up along sandy shorelines. He suspects this weekend’s cold front will drive those fish into more protected waters. He also has been catching trout on Gulp! baits fished under corks on the Indian Field flats, “but not too many upper slot fish.” Low tides have curtailed tarpon hunting in area creeks, and most of the previously abundant baitfish and mullet schools have disappeared.
Lehr’s also got a report on very good redfish action around Bokeelia Island, where the bite was great on new Savage Gear plastic crabs.
CHARLOTTE HARBOR: King Fisher bay boat captains report trout that were on upper east side flats have moved into more sheltered waters in Punta Gorda Isles’ canals and boat basins. Some bonnethead sharks have stayed on the flats, and sheepshead fishing has been good at the Charlotte Harbor Reef below Mangrove Point, but skiff fishing at the reef won’t be possible under predicted weekend winds.
OFFSHORE: A&B Charters Capt. Jim Rinckey sent in shots of three big red grouper caught recently in the same spot Tuesday, in 78 feet of water off Naples aboard the All In. Capt. Kees VanDerAa was showing off two of the big reds, along with Minneapolis angler Tom Spar. Post frontal catches of nice mangrove and lane snappers also have been very good.
Gag grouper harvest has closed and won’t reopen until June in local waters. But Lehr’s got separate reports of closely related, usually much bigger black grouper biting offshore in depths of 80 and 115 feet. A 63-pounder was pulled out of the deeper water after it intercepted a tomtate grunt that was being brought in, among other grunts, lane snapper, and some low-end keeper red grouper. The bigger black of 70-plus pounds was caught in the shallower water.
King Fisher offshore trips over the past week have been all about bottom fishing, with good results on lane snapper and porgies. Keeper red grouper have been a little hit-or-miss, but have averaged two per trip in depths from 60 to 70 feet, out of Boca Grande Pass.
FRESHWATER
LAKE TRAFFORD: The torrid crappie bite on the Immokalee lake slowed a bit this week, but Lake Trafford Marina reports boaters who stick with it still can pull limits of 25 specks per person, dipping minnows or jigs in the shoreline vegetation. A few crappie also have been caught this week from the pier and shorelines of Ann Olesky Park.
LAKE OKEECHOBEE: Roland Martin Marina & Resort Capt. Bo White reports wild swings in the weather over the past week has made bass fishing a challenge. “The best bet is to get some wild shiners and let them do the work. Find a good hard edge of grass north of Cochran’s Pass, all the way to Dyess’s Ditch, and let those shiners hunt.”
The best area for crappie in a hit-or-miss week has been on the West Wall out of Clewiston, where dunking a crappie jigs in thick patches of cattails does the deed.
PIC OF THE WEEK
Back country waters will offer protection from the wind this weekend.
FISH TIP
One way to cheat the wind is to get up a creek like Bob Mignogna likes to do. Or you can just let the boat have the day off. Wildlife Drive (closed Fridays) in Sanibel’s J.N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge is four miles long, with good fishing opportunities for sheepshead and other species around several culverts, plus back country paddle craft launches in the refuge’s no-motor zone. Coastal piers also are a good bet for sheepshead, and freshwater fishing for bass should be good in local lakes, retention ponds, or inland canals.
HOT SPOTS
No. 1: Punta Gorda canals for sheepshead along riprap areas, or trout in deeper canals and turning basins.
No. 2: Matlacha canals and creek potholes for trout.
No. 3: Pine Island canals for snook.
No. 4: Ding Darling’s Wildlife Drive (closed Fridays) for sheepshead and more.
No. 5: Estero Bay’s southern back country for sheepshead.
No. 6: Offshore (after the blow) for grouper and snappers.
No. 7: Lake Trafford for crappie.
Lake Okeechobee
No. 1: Shorelines from Cochran’s Pass around to Dyess’s Ditch for bass.
No. 2: West Wall cattails for crappie.
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