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Toledo angler PJ Johnson used a fly to lure this nice red out of a mangrove jungle, on his Naples Fishing Charter with Capt. Mark Ward. -
Texas ten-year-old Holden Douglas’s redfish was Texas size. He caught it on his Naples Fishing Charter with Capt. Mark Ward. -
Wichita, Kan., angler Ron Sanders used a live crab over an artificial reef off Naples to tempt this whopper permit, on his A&B Charter with All In Capt. Jim Rinckey. -
This 10-foot tiger shark was released, but only after three men held onto the rod on the All In trip with A&B Charters Capt. Jim Rinckey, in 80 feet of water off Naples. -
Bill Smith’s 22-inch redfish is still out thee in Buzzard Bay, looking for more free lunches. -
Kevin Desmond’s 39-incher was the best of several slot size or larger snook Kevin Desmond caught on jigs over two days of fishing with St. James City Capt. George Grosselfinger. -
Kansas angler Abbey Boyd used a live wild shiner to catch this Okeechobee largemouth, with Roland Martin Marina & Resort Capt. Chad Van Slyke. -
Paul Berggren used a Whopper Plopper to catch this Bonita Springs bass last Thursday. -
If Grundy Falwell looks self satisfied, it’s because his Lake Okeechobee crappie weighed a whopping 1-3/4 pounds. Photo courtesy Lake Trafford Marina & Campground. -
Lisa Maza’s 20-inch seatroutwas caught on shrimp and released in southern Estero Bay last Friday, on her inshore Fishbuster Charter. -
Mike Maza’s 13-inch sheepshead was keeper size, but released to fight another day, last Friday on an inshore Fishbuster Charter. -
Bob Zerneken’s 24-inch seatrout was caught on shrimp and released in southern Estero Bay last Friday, on his inshore Fishbuster Charter. -
Patrick Albers’ added this 17-inch sheepshead to his family’s Monday catch in southern Estero Bay on their inshore Fishbuster Charter.
Like bears waking from hibernation, Southwest Florida’s fishes are on the chew.
Permit and a big tiger shark were among offshore catches.
– EMAIL YOUR PICS TO BYRON STOUT
Snook, redfish, and gator trout have been biting in the bays.
And freshwater fishers have racked up some whopper bass and crappie on lakes Okeechobee and Trafford.
OFFSHORE: A&B Charters Capt. Jim Rinckey sent in this shot of a 10-foot tiger shark released while fishing a wreck in 80 feet of water on the All In, out of Naples. Another great All In capture was a dandy permit that took a live crab while fishing an artificial reef off Collier County.
Paul Matz and three grandsons fished nearshore reefs out to 10 miles off New Pass on a windy St. Patrick’s day trip with Fishbuster Charters Capt. Dave Hanson. The boys braved “pretty sloppy” seas and put 13 grunts in the box for tacos while releasing 10 blue runners, four short sheepshead, and a short red grouper.
Six King Fisher Charters out of Fishermen’s Village in Punta Gorda worked depths around 65 feet off Boca Grande Pass over the past week, averaging two keeper red grouper and delicious boxes of panfish including lane snapper, porgies, and white grunts. Spanish mackerel also were reported biting on artificial reefs off northern Lee County.
NAPLES: Capt. Mark Ward sent in several shots of happy Naples Fishing Charters clients, including 10-year-old Holden Douglas of Dallas. Clear water off Keewaydin Island has made sight-fishing for snook with small white flies good, and moving inside the passes has produced pompano taking pink and chartreuse jigs on the incoming tides. On the inside, good size redfish, snook, and jacks “seem to be everywhere” the captain has been tossing scaled sardines.
ESTERO BAY: Three charters in south Estero Bay since last Friday were all good for sheepshead. Mike, Lisa and Eric Maza, and Lisa’s dad, Bob Zerneken, used live shrimp to bag two keepers among three sheepshead and release two trout of 20 and 24 inches, a 12-inch sand bream (striped mojarra) and a 12-inch eel. On Monday Jeff, Alex and Patrick Albers caught seven sheepshead to 17 inches and two jacks on an all-catch-and-release trip. And Ron, Craig, and Jan Royal used shrimp to boat four keepers among nine sheepshead.
SANIBEL: Norm Zeigler’s Fly, Bait & Tackle in Periwinkle Way reports lots of snook movement along Sanibel’s bayside beaches, from the city pier up to Dixie Beach, where anglers are seeing linesides of all sizes. The pier has been good for Spanish mackerel; baby tarpon and snook into slot sizes have been biting along Wildlife Drive (closed Fridays) in the J.N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge; and Blind Pass been producing sheepshead, snook, redfish, and trout for land-based anglers casting from the outside beach, into the pass where some anglers have been wading the flats.
PINE ISLAND: St. James City Capt. George “All Artificials” Grosselfinger reports anglers on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday charters all have been connecting with snook and large trout along eastern Pine Island Sound shorelines. New York angler Kevin Desmond caught two oversize snook to 39 inches on leadhead jigs that also produced gator trout.
Wildfly Charters Capt. Gregg McKee reports mature tarpon have reappeared in Pine Island Sound, especially near the powerlines and along sandbars inside the passes, and baby tarpon are popping up in some of Pine Island’s deeper creeks. In Matlacha Pass redfish have been abundant on the Indian Field flats and along both shorelines at the north end, with cobia beginning to show up cruising on the Burnt Store Bar. “Big trout are everywhere and I’ve had a couple of days where it was hard to catch one that was under slot legal. Never seen anything like it.”
Cape Coral angler Bill Smith send in a shot of the 22-inch redfish he caught and released off eastern Matlacha Pass in Buzzard Bay.
CHARLOTTE HARBOR: They haven’t been biting in limit numbers (eight per angler) but King Fisher bay boat guides have been putting some very nice sheepshead to five pounds on the table after trips to the Charlotte Harbor Reef, south of Mangrove Point. Bonus fish for the table have been Spanish mackerel, which like their shrimp higher in the water column, rather than on the bottom. Nearby flats have been good for keeping busy on smallish spotted seatrout, and small hammerhead species sharks in what Capt. Ralph Allen calls the “year of the bonnethead.”
FRESHWATER
BONITA SPRINGS: Paul Berggren was casting a Whopper Plopper — a unique hard bait with a whirling tail section — when this Bonita Springs bass got mad about the commotion.
LAKE TRAFFORD: Crappie fishing on the Immokalee lake has been inordinately slow, to the point that guides who specialize on the lake’s normally hungry specks have temporarily quit working it. But that didn’t stop Grundy Falwell from trying his luck, which was anything but bad when he caught a dandy 1-3/4-pounder.
LAKE OKEECHOBEE: Tournament anglers on the Big O have needed five-bass bags of 26 pounds or better to win recent events. And it has not been just guys betting on their prowess that are killing it (figuratively speaking, of course). Reed Falls put together a private charter sack with Roland Martin Marina Capt. Chad Van Slyke that weighed 29 pounds, including a 7 pound, 5-ounce bass, and an 8-3. He was pitching isolated reeds in calm conditions; throwing swimming worms and swimbaits in the wind; cranking frogs when the clouds rolled in. Clean water from the West Wall, clockwise up to Buckhead Ridge has been the ticket, sticking to leeward shorelines, depending on the wind direction. And South Bay has been producing 40-bass days for anglers fishing wild shiners.
PIC OF THE WEEK
If Grundy Falwell looks self-satisfied, it’s because his Lake Okeechobee crappie weighed a whopping 1-3/4 pounds. Photo courtesy Lake Trafford Marina & Campground.
FISH TIP
Abbey Boyd’s 8-pound bass was prowling among isolated cattail clumps in the South Bay area of Lake Okeechobee when it came upon her wild shiner. Roland Martin Marina Capt. Chad Van Slyke reports a couple of ways to find the big ones as mornings progress. Begin by looking for baitfish activity and pitch your unweighted wild shiner under a float. As the sun rises, bass are likely to move under matted vegetation, where rerigging with a weighted dropshot rig is key. Keep your shiner as close as possible to the mats, and be patient; the bass bite in spells as they prowl an area.
HOT SPOTS
No. 1: Charlotte Harbor Reef for nice sheepshead; maybe a cobia spotted cruising the Burnt Store Bar.
No. 2: Indian Field area for redfish and nice trout.
No. 3: Pine Island Sound keys for snook; big tarpon in the powerlines area.
No. 4: Sanibel Pier for mackerel, with snook cruising adjacent shorelines.
No. 5: Sheepshead in Estero Bay.
No. 6: Naples back country for snook and redfish.
No. 7: Offshore for permit on artificial reefs.
LAKE OKEECHOBEE
No. 1: Clean water well inside for bass on artificials.
No. 2: South Bay area for bass on wild shiners.
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