Most of us fishing on a regular basis have grown accustomed to the wind lately and actually have found some of our best fishing on the windy days, at least on the days where its blowing from the south or southwest.
Big seatrout and snook were concentrated on Island Points where the strong winds and incoming tide moved a lot of water and food past their feeding stations. Just ahead of the full moon we were catching are largest trout of the year, many over twenty inches and one whopper that measured an honest twenty-seven inches. The largest of the trout were caught from the same areas as snook in Matlacha Pass and the northern portion of Pine Island Sound.
The snook bite was getting really good then a late season cold front slowed down the bite for several days. Each week the ratio of under size to "keeper" slot fish is getting bigger. It's probably about one in twelve fish now that fall in the slot between 28 to 33 inches. It can be a tough task and take a little luck to catch a fish in the slot, but the catch and release action is hard to beat. All of our snook were caught on live shiners or whitebait and other anglers are telling me they are catching some big linesides on cut ladyfish.
The redfish bite is gaining ground in Matlacha Pass. We were on high Spring tides this week and fish were caught foraging under the mangroves on the highs. Live baits including shiners and pinfish or berkley gulp shad jerk baits were working on the reds. The size of reds varied greatly as we caught them as small as seventeen inches and as large as thirty-one inches.
For fast paced action the spanish mackerel bite was hard to beat. On my boat we have been anchoring over the deeper grassflats near Bokeelia in Charlotte Harbor and chumming with live shiners to bring the fish to us. Most days a host of species arrive including the macks, bluefish, sea trout, big ladyfish and occassionally a cobia. This is fast action and an absolute blast when families and/or children are on board. Many of the macks are fairly large running up to twenty-eight inches.
The wind with a little luck should lay down during the upcoming week. I hope so, its time to start looking for tarpon. They are here buts its really hard to locate and fish for them consistently with the strong winds.
These next few weeks are a great time to fish, snook season is winding down, redfishing is getting good and the big boys including tarpon and sharks are moving into our waters.
Wish all a safe week and if you get a chance GO FISHING!