Boca Grande Fishing Report
4 Sept. 2006
As most are aware, snook season is in full swing. There are lots of snook around too. As most of us are catch and release, the limits don't mean much, but is case you want to keep one remember the size limit is now 27 to 34 inches, one per angler per day. The snook are being chased around by a low concentration of red tide. It keeps them from schooling up in the passes too much and drives them into the back country. This is good for fly fishers, because they are more predictable and are suckers for a bait fish pattern when there. The best results came from mangrove shores close to the moving water of the main harbor and Gasparilla Sound.
Redfish are schooling as we speak. I found three schools this week in different ares of the estuary. Catfish Creek, Placida Harbor and Whiddens Creek have all had fish schooling on the open flats. There is no fishing pressure. Ron Whiteley and I fished on Friday for a few hours. Ron caught two or three redfish and a couple of nice snook. I caught one small snook. HMM.... Rats!
Steve Gibson and I fished Tuesday in a spot where I had rallied the reds the day before, but the fish were not as cooperative. We did get some nice redfish to 31 inches on a Gibson pattern. Gibby also caught a couple of smallish snook around Gasparilla Pass and a seatrout of 24 inches in Whiddens Creek. Nice Fish!
Schooling redfish, summer seatrout and an occassional snook on fly are good days for any fly fisher. Spin fishers can do a bit better in numbers too. Look for this trend to continue until the fall cold fronts start to affect water temperatures.
All in all, it's a great time to fish. Not many anglers, lots of fish and good weather. How hard is that?
Fish Hard,
Pete
