Perhaps you didn’t notice, but it’s been fall hereabouts since the autumnal equinox, at 3:21 p.m. on Wednesday. We’ll still have shirtsleeve weather for months, but falling water temperatures will soon perk up the fish and bring on the bite.
Water temps (the Gulf and lakes stay much the same) peak in August at around 87 degrees, and they’ve already dropped a couple of digits. Over the next two months, temps will dive another 10 degrees, which will spur all kinds of activity.
– EMAIL YOUR PICS TO BYRON STOUT
Coastal species including king and Spanish mackerel, little tunny, and blackfin tuna, amberjack, cobia, tripletail, and others will stream southward along our coast, while resident fishes including snook and trout will move well back into the estuaries. In freshwater, bass and crappie will be energized and eating for two, as they say, in preparation for cool weather spawning.
For now, fish are just shifting out of neutral, and the bite is getting good.
NAPLES: David Del Deon sent in a picture of his lovely niece, Jacinda, with an A-plus report card she earned by catching her first snook under his tutelage. A live shrimp did the dirty work.
ESTERO BAY: Get Hooked Charter Capt. Matt DeAngelis reports good trout fishing on the bay’s central flats, and snook and redfish biting well on high tides along the East Wall. South Carolina angler Jeffery Cunningham did it all, releasing a 29-inch snook that took his live pinfish, and taking home a 5-pound trout that couldn’t resist his popp’n cork-and-shrimp combo.
PINE ISLAND: Arkansas angler Donnie Thewatt came close to pulling off an inshore grand slam on fly Monday, just south of Bokeelia in Matlacha Pass with Wildfly Charter Capt. Gregg McKee. His white minnow pattern seduced this 27-inch redfish, several trout, snook, and a young tarpon that jumped on it, and then off it. The guide reports a terrific week with easily spotted tarpon rolling in several areas on glassy mornings, and huge waves of mullet and acres of glass minnows keeping predator interest high.
CHARLOTTE HARBOR: King Fisher bay boat guides out of Fishermen’s Village in Punta Gorda report subslot snook and mostly slot size redfish biting well along the harbor’s West Wall, although spotted seatrout have been notably absent in the upper harbor, where recent heavy outflows from the Peace and Myakka rivers appear to have pushed them westward beyond Cape Haze.
OFFSHORE: A&B Charters Capt. Allen Walburn reports last Friday’s trip to depths around 75 feet, southwest of Naples, produced 100 pounds of mangrove, lane, and yellowtail snappers for the seven anglers with Capt. Bobby Nagaj, who also released about 10 potentially keeper red grouper for which harvest has been halted until 2022 in state and federal waters.
King Fisher Capt. John Baines ran two trips to depths around 70 feet off Boca Grande Pass. Friday was good for a nice box of lane snapper and porgies, plus many red grouper releases. And on Saturday the Vanderwall party from New Jersey opted to battle goliath grouper. The score was three to one in favor of the giant grouper, which went home with free lunches after busting up 9-aught tackle loaded with a 250-pound monofilament line. The fourth, also fully protected by law, was of course released after considerable inconvenience.
FRESHWATER
LAKE TRAFFORD: Crappie specialists on the Immokalee lake are noting improvement in the action which, if not fintastic, has been good enough for some nice fish fries. Tony Louden of Fort Myers and Bill from Bonita each used live minnows to round up seven specks apiece while fishing in separate boats Wednesday morning. Drifting the central depths until finding a pocket of fish has been the key, according to Lake Trafford Marina.
LAKE OKEECHOBEE: Roland Martin Marina Capt. Bo White notes the bass bite remains in the typical summer pattern, “Here today, somewhere else tomorrow.” It can take putting in some time, but he likes to find a good hard edge in outside vegetation where the water is clean and putting out live shiner scouts to do the point work. For anglers who eschew fishing with meat, he likes throwing Mud Minnow pattern Z-Man PopShadz — soft plastic topwater baits — early in the morning. His best prospects have been along Lake Okeechobee’s west wall, from Uncle Joe’s (Mayaca) Cut north to Whidden Pass.
PIC OF THE WEEK
King Fisher Capt. Ralph Allen said this nice crappie that hit his Beetlespin lure in a Shell Creek Reservoir spatterdock patch was the first he’s seen in the past six months of warm water.
FISH TIP
Many anglers think of fly fishing as another level of angling skill, and in truth, many of that opinion are fly fishers. But truth further told is that fly fishing is just another way of getting a bait before a fish, and flies are really good baits for reasons other than aesthetics. Flies are more or less weightless fluff that, cleverly wrought, do amazing imitations of hapless prey as they are pulled along, hand by hand (and never by rod or reel). Being weightless, flies also are super stealthy, much less likely to make startling landings on fish in narrow strike zones. That’s why there are few better tools for working the shoreline shade of mangroves, sometimes for strikes on more casts than not.
HOT SPOTS
No. 1: Charlotte Harbor’s West Wall, for snook and redfish.
No. 2: Matlacha Pass for shots at an inshore grand slam.
No. 3: Estero Bay for snook, reds, and trout.
No. 4: Rookery Bay for keeper redfish (south of Naples’ Gordon Pass).
No. 5: Deeper artificial reefs for battles with goliath grouper.
No. 6: Offshore for mixed snappers on wrecks and other structure.
No. 7: Lake Trafford for crappie.
Lake Okeechobee
No. 1: Uncle Joe’s to Whidden Pass for bass in the grass.
Credit: Source link
