March 5 fishing report from Byron Stout

This weekend’s weather and relatively poor tides will mark a brief pause in what has been really good fishing, all around Southwest Florida.

Offshore anglers have been pulling lots of grouper and mixed bottom fish, with some northbound king mackerel starting to show up.

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Warming inshore waters are inspiring good action from local game fish, with an influx of newly arrived tarpon and cobia reported.

Lake Okeechobee anglers are catching as many as 50 bass on shiner fishing trips, and crappie limits are being caught in only a couple of hours in the Rim Canal.

OFFSHORE: A&B Charters Capt. Jim Rinckey reports great grouper and snapper fishing in depths around 80 feet off Naples aboard the All In. The goliath grouper Kelly Armstrong is giving a hug ate a shark-bitten barracuda on a Gulf wreck in 85 feet of water, where it went happily home after being exercised.

David Daigh of Taylorville, Ill., caught and released several nice amberjacks and contributed a 40-pound smoker to a box of five king mackerel, plus two nice red grouper, and a mix of 60 lane and mangrove snappers, grunts, and porgies caught in 80 feet of water Saturday with David, James and Chuck Stout of North Fort Myers.

Larry Sherman sent in a shot of a sport model barracuda, one of several inspired to attack by retrieving a dark green No. 2 Deadly Dick slab spoon at warp speed through cruising packs of cudas swimming at the surface, 20 miles off Sanibel in 60 feet of water.

Mike Jackson and his nephew, Aaron, used squid to catch 40-some grunts, keeping half for fish tacos, while releasing seven short red grouper and an undersize triggerfish, 19 miles out of New Pass Tuesday on their Fishbuster Charter with Bonita Beach Capt. Dave Hanson.

Six King Fisher trips out of Fishermen’s Village in Punta Gorda, to depths around 65 feet off Boca Grande Pass have averaged two or three keeper red grouper among loads of releases, plus lanes, porgies, white grunts, and sometimes mangrove snapper.

TEN THOUSAND ISLANDS: Capt. Rob Modys joined Mike Larsen, Dave, and Vic of the Marco Sportfishing Club last Friday for a day of kayaking around the mangrove keys across Chokoloskee Bay from the Everglades National Park kayak launch. The fishing was good on the falling tide, and fantastic on the incoming, with all anglers averaging eight subslot snook and too many trout to count on soft plastic baits. They also caught two redfish, a young goliath grouper, ladyfish, jacks, and snapper.

ESTERO BAY: Warming waters made for hungry fish over the past week for Capt. Matt DeAngelis’s Get Hooked Charters. He sent in five shots of anglers with potentially keeper-size snook and slot to oversize redfish that took live shrimp and scaled sardines around Mound Key and along the East Wall.

Inshore Fishbuster trips with Capt. Hanson used live shrimp to catch and release five sheepshead, a snapper, and a ladyfish Wednesday with Paul and Rich Stanek. Monday’s trip with George, George, Jr., George Sloan III, and granddaughters Lily and Allie produced six sheepshead, a sand bream (striped mojarra), and two crevalle jacks. And last Friday’s trip, also to the bay’s south end, was good for one keeper sheepshead among seven, plus two jacks and a couple of ladyfish.

Karen Theiss sent in a nighttime shot of yet another whopper mangrove snapper caught last Friday on a frozen sardine cast from her dock off Hurricane Bay, at the northern end of the Estero Bay system.

SANIBEL: John Goetz sent in a shot of a nice snook he caught on a large live “white bait” (scaled sardine) last Friday in Blind Pass. Norm Zeigler’s Fly, Bait & Tackle in Periwinkle Way reports plenty of sheepshead, redfish, seatrout, and big ladyfish in Blind Pass, along with snook. Anglers fishing along Wildlife Drive (closed Fridays) in the J.N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge have been using frozen shrimp and sand fleas to target sheepshead for take-home, with snook and baby tarpon also biting along the four-mile drive. Visitors avoiding Sanibel’s hefty parking fees by stopping along the Sanibel Causeway have been catching trout, Spanish mackerel, and pompano. And those avoiding the $6 toll by wade fishing on the Toll Booth Flats have been catching much the same, with the pompano biting best on slack low tides.

PINE ISLAND: St. James City Capt. George Grosselfinger celebrated his second Covid shot Wednesday afternoon, casting topwater baits and jigs along Pine Island Sound’s southern shorelines in 25-knot winds. He released five snook to 29 inches, two 22-inch redfish and a 19-inch trout, with all but two fish taking jigs.

Chase Conley of North Fort Myers and Brittany Cornell of Fort Myers fished around both sides of Pine Island’s south end Sunday for a catch of a dozen slot size redfish and a 34-inch snook that hit Brittany’s live sardine, according to Lehr’s Economy Tackle.

Rob Modys reports fishing with his brother off his St. James City dock last Thursday night, where 20 to 30 snook showed up for the first time in a long while under the dock lights. They released one and lost a few others “until they got wise to us.”

Wildfly Charters Capt. Gregg McKee reports catching lots of upper-slot trout on the Indian Field flats of northern Matlacha Pass, where dozen of snook and redfish presented sight-fishing targets on Monday. He also reports an influx of very big tarpon around the Sanibel Causeway bridges, and in Pine Island Sound near the powerlines, “but no photos yet.”

CHARLOTTE HARBOR: King Fisher bay boat captains caught five cobia over the past seven days, including one 40-inch keeper taken Saturday by the Jester party from Colorado, with Capt. Chris Gagnon. Spanish mackerel also have been biting at the Charlotte Harbor Reef, along with some very nice sheepshead. Trout have been biting along upper east side flats, where targetable numbers of bonnethead sharks have been “everywhere you look.”

FRESHWATER

LAKE TRAFFORD: The only poor report for the past week comes from the Immokalee lake, where even guided trips haven’t been very good. Waters to warm for the lake’s abundant crappie have been taking the blame, according to Lake Trafford Marina.

LAKE OKEECHOBEE: Ramon Iglesias of Roland Martin’s Marina & Resort reports hot bass fishing with wild shiners has continued right through the first week of March, with guided morning trips producing some catches of 50-plus fish, including some big ones. The bite on fake baits has been notably slower, but not without success for anglers pitching Gambler Ace worms or Why Not critter baits in black/blue flake or junebug colors. Capt. Steve Lake notes March winds will make the lake’s south end, including the Bay Bottom area, the best bets for finding bass in cleaner water, where heavy reed patches mixed with a little water hyacinth has been great cover to try. If it’s not too windy, the West Wall also can be a good place to start. Capt. Lake reports ” this has been the best crappie season he has experienced in years.” He’s been catching limits within a couple of hours on late afternoon trips in the Rim Canal south of Clewiston, fishing the outside edges of lily pads using minnows and jigs.

PIC OF THE WEEK

Scott Emery’s nice trout struck his white streamer fly meant for snook and redfish on the Indian Field flat in north Matlacha Pass, on his Wildfly Charter with Capt. Gregg McKee.

FISH TIP

Larry Sherman reports this green No. 2 Deadly Dick lure was just what the barracuda wanted, when retrieved at warp speed across the surface. Barracuda are great sport fish, slamming lures with ferocious strikes, sometimes at the end of prodigious horizontal or skyrocketing leaps. But they want to be challenged with lures that inspire their blinding speed. Tube lures are perennial favorites for casting baits, and they will smash any number of live or artificial baits trolled at maximum speeds. That’s also the way to find and catch big king mackerel that are now migrating northward through offshore waters.

HOT SPOTS

No. 1: Charlotte Harbor Reef for sheepshead, mackerel and maybe a cobia.

No. 2: Indian Field for snook, redfish and trout.

No. 3: Blind Pass for sheepshead and more.

No. 4: South end of Pine Island for redfish and snook.

No. 5: Sanibel Causeway and the Toll Booth flats for trout and pompano.

No. 6: Mound Key for redfish and snook.

No. 7: Offshore for grouper, snappers and king mackerel.

LAKE OKEECHOBEE

No. 1: Bay Bottom area for bass.

No. 2: Rim Canal for crappie.

No. 3: West Wall for bass if it’s not too windy.