June 25 fishing report from Byron Stout

This week’s mixed blessings were breezes that mitigated the heat, but made the boating a little bumpy.

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Otherwise, everything from tarpon to bluegills were biting pretty well around our last “Super Moon” of the year.

OFFSHORE: Speaking of tarpon, Mike Kunz’s spinning tackle triumph was a dandy, caught Sunday off Fort Myers Beach on a 10-inch mullet.

The Bodner boys, Beckett, 7, and Braxton, 5, had a blast Tuesday in the nearshore waters off Bonita Beach, on their Fishbuster Charter with dad, John, granddad John Shelton, and their friend Patrick Bennett. They used cut squid to reel in two 12-inch porkfish, two 13-inch hogfish, four spadefish, 15 grunts and 21 mangrove snapper to 11-1/2 inches.

King Fisher offshore trips to depths around 65 feet off Boca Grande Pass produced an average of a couple of keeper red grouper among lots of shorts, good boxes of lane snapper and mixed panfish, and a few bonito (little tunny) caught at anchor on freelined sardines.

Lehr’s Economy Tackle owner Mike Westra reports, “I don’t know anybody that’s come in over the past week that went real deep, from 130 feet on out, that didn’t come in with a limit of American red snapper, but there weren’t any really big ones. Red grouper have been good, and they’ve been getting really good mangrove snapper.”

ESTERO BAY: Get Hooked Charter Capt. Matt DeAngelis reports three trips, beginning last Thursday when Fort Myers angler Jennifer Hilderbrand* used cut mullet to catch and release a 32-inch redfish at Jack’s Bar. She also used a live shrimp to reign over, and rein in this whopping 5.6-pound Florida pompano on a central bay flat. Also on the central flats, Wednesday, Andrew and Dale Ayers used live shrimp under popping cork rigs to catch their combined bag limits of six spotted seatrout (also the new boat limit). In between, last Friday, Scott Johnson used a chunk of mullet to waylay a 30-inch redfish at Jack’s Bar.

SAN CARLOS BAY: Frequent contributor Karen Theiss continued her series of unlikely whoppers caught from her dock off Hurricane Bay with this shot of a sheepshead that took her favorite bait, “sardines from Cattledock Baits.” “It was heavy,” she said.

She also sent in a shot of her buddy, Lindsey, who took her Cattledock sardines across Punta Rassa Road to the Sanibel Causeway seawall, where she caught and released the snook that’s the Pic of the Week.

CALOOSAHATCHEE RIVER: Mike Westra and a friend fished for snook in the Wilson Pigott (State Road 31) Bridge area Sunday, and hooked six tarpon, losing two estimated at 50 to 60 pounds. Westra released all four of the 20- to 35-pounders he hooked on a purple D.O.A. Baitbuster, but they never hooked a snook.

SANIBEL: Norm Zeigler’s Fly, Bait & Tackle on Periwinkle Way reports Jim Stenson and his Sweetwaters Adventures clients had a big week on Sanibel’s Gulf beaches, including Bowman’s and Blind Pass, where they landed snook, trout and pompano. Zeigler’s also notes “kind of a surprise” report by fly fishers who observed good numbers of snook on the island’s bayside, where they saw lots of snook between the Sanibel Light and along beaches west to Tarpon Bay. Ditto for Pete Squibb and Blake Matherly, who spotted “huge schools of snook” in the lower Caloosahatchee. The only downer was slow going along Wildlife Drive (closed Fridays) in the J.N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge.

PINE ISLAND: Cape Coral Tarpon Hunter Vince Parkinson reported “what’s for dinner,” a dandy cobia that mistook his tarpon offering near St. James City for ling food, Monday in Pine Island Sound.

Also out of St. James City, Capt. George “Artificials Only” Grosselfinger used topwater baits & jigs to catch and release six snook and two tarpon, “nothing big,” Tuesday afternoon around the sound’s southeastern keys.

Bokeelia anglers Rob Naylor and Robert Kellern hooked five large tarpon and released three while baiting with live pinfish Monday, just outside of Captiva Pass where there were fish “everywhere.”

Also according to Mike Westra of Lehr’s, northwest Cape Coral angler Jacob Elliot has been kayaking north of the bridge in Matlacha Pass, until he encounters schools of small herrings that have always been the tipoff for lots of trout, plus jacks and ladyfish. He’s been using 3-inch Gambler TZ swimbaits in White Lightning and Blue Pearl Silver colors to hook all three, plus one tarpon. When paddling south of the bridge, redfish have been his main catches on small gold spoons, and he’s used the same baits to jump tarpon there, as well.

Wildfly Charters Capt. Gregg McKee sent in a report of “a really amazing pile of life” around Matlacha Pass. Mikayla Conlee, 16, and her dad threw Gulp! Shrimp and Zara Spooks to catch spotted seatrout that never included a fish under the 15-inch minimum. Mikayla also jumped an estimated 40-pound tarpon on a Z-Man jerkbait at mid morning, and they saw “a ton of tailing redfish and cruising bull sharks on the same flats.”

CHARLOTTE HARBOR: King Fisher bay boat guides out of Fishermen’s Village Marina in Punta Gorda report an uptick of trout action on the harbor’s northeastern flats, where limit catches including some fish over the 19-inch slot size have been likely, “with a little work.” Spanish mackerel, small crevalle jacks and ladyfish also have been abundant outside the eastern bar, and the harbor’s deep holes still are yielding somewhat reduced numbers of blacktip and blacknose sharks on cut ladyfish, and bonnetheads on live shrimp.

FRESHWATER

LAKE TRAFFORD: Lake Trafford has been the local anomaly when it comes to rainfall, which it hasn’t been getting enough of to keep up with losses from evapotranspiration. A couple of anglers in very shallow draft Gheenoes have caught a few bluegill using worms, but fishing from the pier at Ann Olesky Park has been pretty much futile, according to Lake Trafford Marina.

LAKE OKEECHOBEE: Roland Martin Marina & Resort Capt. Mike Jones reports 9-year-old Brody McClellan, from Wortham, Texas, “couldn’t wait to go fishing on Lake Okeechobee with his family, sporting his own fishing tournament jersey.” Being dressed to kill (figuratively) didn’t hurt. He released a dandy 5-pounder while using wild shiners in the clear water along a grass edge on the West Wall. Capt. Jones advises a best bet is a four-hour morning trip, the better to deal with afternoon heat and possible thunderstorms.

PIC OF THE WEEK

Frequent contributor Karen Theiss reports her buddy, Lindsey, caught this snook from the Sanibel Causeway seawall at Punta Rassa, fishing with a frozen sardine.

FISH TIP

Spotted seatrout now are the only one of Florida’s “big three” inshore species (also including snook and redfish) that are legal to harvest between State Road 64 in Manatee County, south to Gordon Pass in Collier County. So bay anglers in much of Southwest Florida who want the best chance of catching a fish dinner should hope for spots before their eyes. For the biggest numbers, the odds-on rigs may be with live or artificial shrimp suspended under corks that pop or rattle, thereby calling trout to the table. For the biggest trout and most fun, artificial lures may be best. Mikayla Conlee and her dad never caught a trout under the 15-inch minimum, while casting scented Gulp! lures and zig-zagging Zara Spook topwater plugs, with Wildfly Charters Capt. Gregg McKee. New trout rules have reset the slot size limit from 15 to 19 inches. The angler bag limit is three, with a limit of no more than six trout per boat; and no more than one trout over 19 inches may be harvested per angler, or per boat, whichever is less.

HOT SPOTS

No. 1: Charlotte Harbor flats for trout; holes for sharks.

No. 2: Matlacha Pass for trout, redfish and tarpon.

No. 3: Captiva Pass for tarpon.

No. 4: Pine Island Sound for snook and tarpon.

No. 5: Sanibel beaches for snook and pompano.

No. 6: Estero Bay for trout and redfish.

No. 7: Offshore for grouper and snappers.

Lake Okeechobee

No. 1: Uncle Joe’s spoil islands for bluegill.

No. 2: West Wall for bass.

No. 3: “Ship Channel” spoil islands for bluegill.