Recent inshore fishing reports from the Southwest region.
Charlotte Harbor Bite
Florida Sportsman member: Real V
Went out at about noon to see if I could find some trout and reds. What a day, started off with two 18 inch trout and then hooked 4 cobia. The biggest I landed was 30 inches. I saw about 30 cobia in all. then hit the west wall and got a 25 inch red.
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Charlotte Harbor Night Bite
Florida Sportsman member: Real V
Took my friend Doug from Wisconsin out. He caught his first snook ever and some black drum. We got one keeper and I got a 38 inch snook. I don’t know why the black drum have moved in so early, but saturday night I got a 45 inch blackdrum.
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Sanibel Trout Bite
Florida Sportsman member: Grey Beard
It was noon and the bumpy northeast winds of the early morning were gone and it was now flat calm. I put on a chartreuse Zara Spook Jr. and missed a decent bite. Then a big whoosh and a nice battle, thinking I had another red, it turned out to be my biggest trout ever at 25 inches and 5 pounds, a real gator.
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East Wall Redfish
Florida Sportsman member: Ryanlee
I waited until the tide wasn’t negative to go out and saw a lot of reds on the east wall. Water temps were around 74 degrees. Got a nice 30 inch fish on a zman shrimp. I’m able to cover a lot of ground with my trolling motor looking for them.
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Taking the Kids Fishing
Florida Sportsman member: Tight Loops
The bite never really turned on but was steady all afternoon. Mostly shorts and “fun” fishing but we got to see mangrove snapper, a grunt, a lane snapper, tomtates, spanish mackerel, one flounder, sand perch, blue runners, whiting, baby grouper and a puffer that was a big hit as it inflated.
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Pine Island Flats
Florida Sportsman member: CoTroutGuy
Forum member CoTroutGuy got out recently and chased some fish in the shallow water. Spotting tailing redfish in the overcast conditions at hand was tough, but he was able to land a nice red and a nice snook!
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Pine Island Inshore
Florida Sportsman member: GatorInPISound
At this point we looked at some potholes and sandy bare bottom zones to see if the fish might be hanging around waiting on the incoming, and a few were.
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A Pleasant Surprise
Florida Sportsman member: Captain Ross
We went out last night fishing the incoming tide. Hoping to find some big snook and tarpon, but had a hard time getting our baits through…COBIA? Wound up landing 3 up to 30 pounds and broke off another pig. The cobia bit best on slack tide using Hogy HDUV Black/Purple Flake Paddle Tails on 1 ounce Jig Heads.
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Bumping the Bridges
Florida Sportsman member: Real V
Forum member Real V got into some nice Charlotte Harbor snook recently. The tactic used for these linesider was hopping D.O.A. Terroreyz along the bottom around bridge structure.
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Southwest Inshore Bite
Florida Sportsman member: Binder
We moved to a stretch of groves and landed 16 snook, 3 reds, 4 mangrove snapper, 3 jacks and a trout. We moved one last time to another section of groves and caught 6 more snook and 2 jacks. Back by 2 and they were happy!
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Tarpon, Tripletail and More
Florida Sportsman member: Captain Ross
We’ve still been plugging away at tarpon at night, it was a bit inconsistent around the last full moon. One night we jumped six, the next night four, then the two following trips we jumped a big fat zero.
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Peace River Snook
Florida Sportsman member: Snookaddict91
Forum member Snookaddict91 got into some nice snook while fishing the peace river. Fishing the shorelines for these fish, it can be a blast pulling them out of the sticks on spinning tackle. Nice fish!
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Fighting the Heat, Catching Fish
Florida Sportsman member: GatorInPISound
As the tide finally reached the branches of the mangroves, we decided to start working the bushes. It turned out to be a good idea and the fish cooperated. They got fired up, eating both under and off of the bushes. When the sun went behind a cloud the fish came out very far off the shadow line, and when it was sunny they retreated to the sanctuary of the roots.
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Snook and Tarpon Action In July
Florida Sportsman member: Captain Ross
Most tarpon have been in the 40 to 80 pound range and we’ve been averaging 2 to 5 tarpon in the air per night for our effort. While it’s not the out of control excitement that late April, May and June offered, one can’t simply give up on tarpon fishing when it gets a bit more difficult.
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Pine Island Inshore
Florida Sportsman member: RichieUF
About 11am we found a nice school of about 40 fish in a location about 10 miles from where we had seen the other schools. We managed to pull 3 out of it before we lost it. 2 of the 3 were well over the slot, but one would have been close enough to take a ride to the scales and let the measure man decide.
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Pine Island Inshore
Florida Sportsman member: RichieUF
About 11am we found a nice school of about 40 fish in a location about 10 miles from where we had seen the other schools. We managed to pull 3 out of it before we lost it. 2 of the 3 were well over the slot, but one would have been close enough to take a ride to the scales and let the measure man decide.
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Southwest Inshore Bite
Florida Sportsman member: gumgator
Forum member gumgator shared some pictures of recent trips with a nice variety of inshore fish.
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Early Morning Inshore Bite
Florida Sportsman member: cptjoshua420
I took my grandfather out last week before the super moon. we had pretty good luck early in the morning on the incoming tides. the whitebait was all over the mouth of the Caloosahatchee, and if you could find any island sheltering the bait from the strong tides you’ll more than likely hook up.
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Tearin’ Up the Reds
Florida Sportsman member: GatorInPISound
This week we decided to return to the flats and see what we could do for a few hours. At the end of the outgoing we had a tremendous school of reds absolutely smash a pinfish and rip the leader off. I have no idea how big those fish were but they had to be well over 30 inches.
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Little Girl, Big Snook
Florida Sportsman member: kmagnuss
Next one on was bigger, but didn’t feel like anything special as I was handing the rod to her. As soon as she started to reel it was like the switch went off in the fish’s head that he was hooked and he started pulling drag. I held the pole while she struggled to reel. It took a few minutes but we got it in the boat and it went 31 inches!
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Tarpon Time!
Florida Sportsman member: Captain Ross
It’s no secret tarpon fishing is excellent right now. Big groups of tarpon are moving along the beaches and through the sound. I still don’t have much time to fish during the day, but night fishing is becoming very productive.
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Fort Myers Fishing
Florida Sportsman member: Captain Bill Curtis
After the first 2 baits got stolen, the third was the charm when the large threadfin got hammered and a giant snook broke the water when the circle hook came tight. My angler did a stellar job of leaning on the fish, with the 20 pound braid, as it raced to the mangrove roots hoping to escape. The slob snook barely fit in the net, and we gently cradled her for a couple of pictures before I spent the time to revive her, and she swam away strong.
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Bull Red and More
Florida Sportsman member: Flats Blue 96
On Sunday we went to Estero Bay. We were fishing along the edges of the mangroves catching a lot of sheepshead and a couple small snook. Then out of no where a huge red cruised by, so I tossed my greenie off the back of the boat and put out some slack line. I started to reel it in thinking he had swam by when my drag started screaming. Got my personal best red in the boat after a couple minutes and he measured 38 inches.
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Night Time Tarpon
Florida Sportsman member: Captain Ross
It was a special fish for the angler, his first tarpon and largest fish to date. It’s also the smallest one landed so far this season, right around 60 pounds. It made for a short, exciting fish full of leaps and head shakes. A perfect, manageable show for our angler.
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Windy Southwest Reds
Florida Sportsman member: Captain Ross
Hit the red school and was hooked up within 2 minutes of the first cast. Hooked about 20 fish and landed 13 in an hour or so, then headed back for the ramp. An excellent day with captain Mike catching a ton of fish in a short amount of time in bad weather.
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Southwest Reds on Artificials
Florida Sportsman member: GatorInPISound
A few days ago a buddy and I decided to work some silver and gold spoons as well as some gulps on jig heads. We focused on deep sandy drop offs from bars as well as some mangrove shorelines that were flooded with the incoming tide.
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Shallow Water Trout and Pompano
Florida Sportsman member: aaron
Hit the flats after school for a bit today, and did really good. I caught 2 keeper sized trout on fly and a keeper pompano on fly. My buddy was on fire. He caught 4 trout, going 18 to 22 inches and a whopper at 25 inches! He also got a 17 inch pompano. All of his fish were caught on a mirrodine. The fly I was using was a greenback looking streamer.
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Lady Lovin’ Redfish
Florida Sportsman member: GatorInPISound
I’ve been using cut mullet but today I was able to grab a few ladyfish on a spoon first thing in the morning. I was excited to see if they would be equally effective. I tried a few spots and with a low, low tide and it seemed like forever before the tide began to fill up some places that I like to fish.
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Pine Island Redfish
Florida Sportsman member: Capt JohnZ
Finally had a chance to take the neighbor out for a trip. Fish have been biting on cut pins and shrimp. Getting a lot of oversize ones. Spend most of my time in the Pine Island Sound.
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Sanibel Sharkin’
Florida Sportsman member: Reelinrudy
After I determined it had the bait long enough I pushed the drag up into the “strike” setting and maneuvered the rod up and rested it on my shoulder. As I felt the line begin to come tight, I ran forward away from the water to take the stretch out of the springy monofilament and pumped the rod to set the hook. After 20 feet I could feel the fish on the other end and turned around and wound tight as I made my way back to the water. I Worked the fish a bit and everyone watching did not believe there was a fish on the end. I knew it was there however, not a huge fish, but there was definitely a shark there.
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Keeping The Rod Bent In Pine Island
Florida Sportsman member: nitelite08
Using live shrimp on a jighead, outgoing tide by some old pilings and a small drop off. Sorted through the usual short sheepshead, mangrove snapper, a lot of spanish mackerel and jacks. Got a good bite about 30 minutes in a few minutes later pulled in a very nice black drum.
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December Southwest Inshore
Florida Sportsman member: Captain Ross
The number of bites has decreased, but the quality is still there if you manage to hook up. Adult Tarpon have been feeding well on Hogy 10 inch Original Series Soft Baits rigged weightless and fished very slowly across the surface. Black has been the best producing color.
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You Will Always Remember Your First Redfish
Florida Sportsman member: fishdish
My 8 year can’t quite cast far enough for flats fishing yet so she casted out as far as she could and let the line go out as we drifted. It wasn’t but a minute later when I heard “Daddy, Daddy, I got one”. I thought she may have been snagged on the bottom but her screaming drag said redfish! She tried to pass the rod to me but I told her it wasn’t happening. The only help I gave her was I tightened up her drag a little and held the boat still with the pole. 5 minutes later we had a 25 inch red on board!
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Low Tide Fishing In The Southwest
Florida Sportsman member: Tight Loops
Bottom of the full moon low tide, just as it started to flood back in. I had a couple of folks I wanted to show tailing red fish to on a flat in less than a foot of water. Saturday was the better of the two days as it stayed overcast for most of the morning. We managed to find some redfish and a few nice single trout hanging out as well.
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Beach Sharkin’
Florida Sportsman member: Shore Catch Fishing
15 minutes later the first Bull hit the beach. We stayed for 4 hours and had 10 or so runs, Caught some Bt’s and Spinners as well.
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Whitebaiting The Redfish
Florida Sportsman member: Inshoreslam
Bite was slow at first but quickly fired up and stayed pretty consistent for a few hours. As soon as the wind picked up and the bite died we headed in. Wound up with around 15 reds for the day ranging from 22 to 27 inch all looking thick and healthy.
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Captiva Snook
Florida Sportsman member: Snookslayer772
Traveled over to Captiva Island this weekend from Stuart for the Floridians for clean water rally to stop the dumping from lake O. I Wanted to try to squeeze in some fishing while over there. Talked to some local guides and asked them what they thought about some good wading spots and a few tipped me off. Woke up sunday morning at 6:30 to hit the first light bite and it paid off. Found a beautiful Mangrove pocket and decided to give it a shot. No more than 10 casts later did this healthy 36 inch snook come up and smash my top water. In less than a foot of water which made it an awesome visual bite and a great fight on a 2000 sized reel. I ended up catching seven snook and one nice trout to end the morning.
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August Reds
Florida Sportsman member: GatorInPISound
August has been a pretty nice month so far. My boat was down for a bit but I have been able to run a few trips as of late. Ive been getting out with family, church brethren, and friends. The pot holes are holding fish at the bottom of the tide and the oyster bars and bushes have been good on the high water. The fishing looks like it will be just fine out there and the bait is looking like it is getting better. The shiners are almost full grown now. The reds are eating both of em and pinfish are nothing to sneeze at, they get it done as well.
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Another One for the Records
Florida Sportsman member: former bluefishinny
Tonight I slipped out with forum member Fatsnook. We entered the water around 4:30, only to be greeting with a good thunder boomer. We took shelter in the sticks, waited 10 minutes and the storm passed over. Bait everywhere, just a lack of predators. End result was not too bad, just not as good as I had anticipated. We caught 6 snook with 2 going over 28 inches, 1 fat bluefish, 1 flounder, and a few trout. Tonight (I try to keep records) was my 75th snook on artificial this year at this particular location (76th according to record keeping).
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Rough Weather Reds & More
Florida Sportsman member: GatorInPISound
Yes, I have been crazy enough to venture out into the weather the past few days. I started out trying to catch bait and had what has been consistently a tough time doing it. Pinfish just swarm my chum but I have not been able to get a net on them. I ended up getting a good couple of dozen over sized pins and a ton of them about the size of your thumb. I never get too caught up in bait and just use what I catch. So, with that in mind we continued on through a storm with lightening and thunder and bee sting like rain in the face to our first destination…..
The fish were ready from the get go and I think we ended up catching around 20 drum. The mullet were swarming the shorelines and it always seems like the reds are not far behind, just gotta be patient. There were bites when we had to wait em out and then there were some that hit like we threw it into their mouth[...]
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Fresh and Salt Water Success
Florida Sportsman member:RollerToaster
My buddy Ben came into town from England to do some fishing, he was an avid fisherman so we went out in search of some snook. The day started out slow, when we got to one of my favorite creeks on the Caloosahatchee but due to weak tides it was too risky to go in all the way. As we worked some new shorelines Ben managed this nice 20 inch flounder on live shrimp. After that the fishing died down again until a man with a boat wrap for Lobster Lady Seafood in Cape Coral gave us some extremely nice whitebait. After that it was game on with the snook, we managed a 31 inch, a 33 inch and a 36 inch snook in the span of about 30 minutes before it died down again. Once the snook bite died down the wind picked up, so we decided with his limited time here we should go try and catch him a nice largemouth bass, so we were off to the North Cape Canals with a bucket of live shiners. We caught at least 15 bass Ben managed quite a few small-medium sized bass and I managed to pick up this nice bucket mouth. All in all it was an awesome day, it’s not everywhere you can catch huge snook and bass all in one day. It makes me glad I’ve gotten to grow up and live down here in SWFL…
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Tarpon Beach Snook
Florida Sportsman member: cpr
Went to the Sanibel pier and netted finger mullet and mohara 2-4 inch. The pier was dead so I took the bait to the condo near Tarpon beach. Soaked the mohara (sp) from 12:30-3 pm and got nothing. Went out to eat and left the mullet in a flo-thru. Got back at the dead end of the out going. Within 10 minutes pulled in a 22 inch snook that once hooked pulled line for a short distance then headed for the beach, the little guy beached himself. It was an easy release. Hooked up anther mullet through the nose and after 15 minutes got into a fight with a big boy, he pulled line out mid way on the sandbar and was a blast to catch and release. A nice woman on the beach took a photo. Equipment used, 4000 symetry with 20# PP and 20-pound fluro leader, owner lite-wire circle hook and a small split shot.
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Sarasota Snook
Florida Sportsman member: former bluefishinny
Three members hit the flats last night in search of some picture worthy snook. The evening overall started off slow, very slow. Three of us were throwing soft plastics in dark colors, black and gold – as this is our confidence bait in this area. A few flounder here and there, some short trout, and Matt finally hooks up on a drag screamer. Nice little fight, and this healthy snook comes to grips. Overall slow night…Matt also banged out a very nice trout.
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Sanibel Tarpon
Florida Sportsman member: ColeJennette
Me and my buddy took his 17 foot flats boat out this past Friday to try our luck at some tarpon action off of Sanibel. Being complete newbies, we had talked to just about everyone we knew who fished for these guys and felt like we had a rough idea of what we were doing.
Hit up blind pass for bait early, then cruised the beaches. Nothing but spanish mackerel. Went out off of Knapps next. Nothing but sharks. Ran into the causeway to grab bait and fuel up around lunch then decided we’d cruise the beach back north then head out. Tons of spanish on the way back and then suddenly we saw a hugh concentration of birds. Up closer discovered they were diving on some bait they had gotten to ball up. Ten minutes after we arrived, the tarpon showed up and were free jumping from the middle off the ball and rolling all around us[...]
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Plan B Pays Off
Florida Sportsman member: Ptsrhenry
Well last week we tried to go offshore fishing, we picked up bait easy outside Jug creek and headed west. Wind was blowing pretty good, seas easy 2 feet. Our first stop was at 42 feet over a wreck, picked up one spanish mackerel. This is were we made the decision to come back in as one of my crew started chumming. Came in through Captiva pass and went south looking for a few new spots. The area down there has some big snook under the bushes. We will be back. We managed to do well fishing inshore. We caught two reds, several snook and nine keeper trout. Plan B payed off, pics are of my son Sean. This kid can fish, he can soak a hook all day, tie his own knots, and loves to wade.
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Turning High Expectations into High Fives
Florida Sportsman member: former bluefishinny
John and I hit a flat just South of Tampa Sunday evening with high expectations. Good tide, good water temperature. The high expectations turned into many many high fives. All of our fish tonight were caught on Mirrolure Lil Johns in dark colors. We entered the water at around 3, and left around 8. Final tally: 9 snook, anywhere from 14 to 29/30 inches. 8 redfish from rats, to around 26inches, 5 decent flounder, a black drum (good eating size) and a few decent trout. Last hour of sunlights was simply spectacular! It was like watching Discovery Channel. Imagine a 30 minute segment on snook leaping all around…That is what we experienced!
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Sarasota Bay Reds and Trout
Florida Sportsman member: Flat_Top
Got out with my buddy Jeff today. He found some Reds over the weekend, but couldn’t get them to eat and wanted to see if we could find them. We hit the area and there was a ton of mullet, but no Reds. After about an hour of looking we were about to give up when they came cruising across a white sand pothole. First cast in produced a nice 26″ Red. For the next hour or so the school of Reds would cruise between a couple big potholes allowing us to preform CPR, Catch, Photo, Release, on them. We had a big 55 inch Redfish double with Jeff and a 26 inch Red and me with a nice 29 inch pig.
Eventually the Reds got tired of us and moved on so we went looking for others. Next flat we hit was also loaded with mullet and there were Reds mixed in with them. Next thing you know we are both hooked up with what we think are Reds. But no, we have a 53 inch double of Gator Trout[...]
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Sarasota Inshore Variety
Florida Sportsman member: RMD
Its been a long cold winter up north, and we’ve been looking forward to some deep offshore trips to combat the depression. We arrived Saturday and the week’s forecast looked pretty dismal. Our first “offshore” trip was scheduled for Monday, but the weather was not cooperative as there were 5-8 foot seas projected in the Gulf. Any day fishing is still better than working, so we decided to settle for an inshore trip.
We fished rock piles, docks, and any structure, hoping it would hold something for the dinner table. The high winds and rough waters were helpful in that we had no competition, as we saw less than 5 other boats all day. We had a very productive day, bringing home 10 sheepshead, 2 black drum, 3 flounder. We used live shrimp for bait.
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Estero Bay Reds & More
Florida Sportsman member: dtobias
Fished with an old friend and his girl in Estero bay on Wednesday and Thursday. It was tough with the dip in temp and the wind howling. You really had to fish the lee of islands and such. Caught some jacks, ladys and cats….trashcan slam. Only trout were underslot. Finally, my buddy got this slot redfish at 19 1/2″. His girlfriend had never had redfish, so they came over after the charter and I cooked it up on my grill for them. Next day, more of the same. Only put one sheepie in the cooler[...]
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Bulls, Pompano, & Gator Trout
Florida Sportsman member: GatorInPISound
Had an outstanding day with Redfish57 yesterday. We used handpicked shrimp and were into some really good fish.We came across some reds early on the incoming. All but one were over the slot with the only keeper at 26 3/4 inches.We were able to score some real nice upper and overslot trout as well.
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Pine Island Snook
Florida Sportsman member: Capt. Gregg McKee
I had a very good weekend with snook on artificials in the northern part of PI Sound. Bokeelia angler Mike Craig and his buddy Dr. Russell from NC did all the catching using topwaters, Gulp Shrimp, and white paddletails.This was the best snook fishing I’ve had all year. We caught them in a lot of surprising places when I wasn’t really looking for snook. We also pulled in a handful of upper-slot trout.
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Sheeps at the Wall
Florida Sportsman member: larrywitt
Every year i have the privilege of running a fishing tournament for the Waters Edge Motel and Apartments out of their marina in St James city on Pine Island..It is a fun event to be sure. It is a team event for the sheepshead ,5 largest fish from each boat are weighed..There are two places for sheepshead. Two boats had the same weight 17 pounds 15 ounces the tie is broken by the the longest fish from the five that were weighed.. More important where were they fishing The wall at redfish pass. Fresh and frozen shrimp were both being used. Both boats had (4) fishermen that were on a constant hook up. The fish were stacked at the wall.
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Hog Island Cobia
Florida Sportsman member: Real V
My wife and I went out to try for trout, sheephead. Stopped at the El Jobean bridge tried for sheephead but no one home so we ran to the south end of Hog Island for some trout. Fishing in 3 feet of water we caught a few small trout and ladyfish. I was throwing a twitch bait black/silver about 10 feet from the boat was a big flash on my bait. At first I said damn shark, but after about 15 minutes I got it near the boat an saw it was a cobia. Another 1/2 hour we landed it. 47 inches.
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Estero Bay Morning Bite
Florida Sportsman member: JSTickum
Went out Wednesday morning with fellow member Dave O. We knew the forecast was horrible , but we needed to wet some lines. The plan was to fish the morning out-going tide while the winds were light and find some clean water. Well that was actually very easy. The winds were somewhat light at 6:45 am and we took advantage of it. We ran to our first spot , which was our only spot tucked in close to the mangroves.The tide was heading out and we had great water clarity.We set up facing the current with the wind on our back and started pulling in Trout and Jacks one after the other. The trout were feeding ,eating every color plastic we threw at them. The trout were between 15 to 18 inches and fat.
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Matlacha Redfish
Florida Sportsman member: Captain Ross
I was lucky enough to have the day free last Friday. Weather was perfect with some light winds and clear skys. My intentions were to sight fish some mud flats on the -.8 tide around 10am. A buddy and I put in at the Matlacha ramp with our kayaks and made a 2 mile trek to a spot, I hoped would have some tailing redfish. Trying to approach the spot, we actually had to drag the kayaks across the mud for about 30 yards. We sure didn’t have to worry about somebody in a boat blowing by us, at least for awhile. Made it to the top of the hole and found fish pushing bait all over the place. Made 3 or 4 casts and it was game on with a nice over slot redfish. We ended up picking up 6 more nice redfish, a pair of decent snook and a few trout to give us a slam.
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Sarasota Bay Slam
Florida Sportsman member: ANDROS18
Took my dad out again on saturday. He proceeded to catch a slam! I could only manage reds but that’s ok with me! All reds where upper slot or over slot. Kept one smaller one for dinner. The trout and snook where caught on a mirrodine and one red on a gold spoon. We cheated on the rest using cut ladyfish! Also one of the redfish had no spots!
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Sarasota Bay Redfish
Florida Sportsman member: Makomenuts
It was my dads bday yesterday and I wanted to get him out on the water. I met up with forum member flatzbroke and we decided to do a little inshore trip to target redfish and trout. We arrived at 10th street boat ramp around 9 a.m. and headed to our first spot. We fished potholes for about an hour catching a lot of trout (most trout were 13-18 inches) but one was 4-5 pounds. and a couple reds here and there. We drifted off the flat and made a move across the bay and it was on. Oversize redfish were everywhere[...]
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Placida Reds
Florida Sportsman member: Makomenuts
We fished the incoming tide started off sight fishing in shallow and as the tide creeped in we started fan casting in the mullet schools in 1-2 feet of water with salt and pepper bottom. We caught 30 reds a dozen trout and 1 small snook in about 4 hours. Most reds were between 24-27 inches with a few rats and oversized fish mixed in.[...]
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Redfish Bite is On!
Florida Sportsman member: InshoreSlam
Headed out this morning around 9 with one of my best friends and longtime fishing buddy Captain Russ. With the skys grey and cloudy and thunderstorms in the distance, what we thought was going to be a horrible day turned out to be the best I have had this month! We fished a strong incoming tide untill about 1330, catching red after red, after red. The bite would not stop and was consistant the whole day. Wound up catching around 20 or so reds ranging from 20 to 27 inches with most being around the 24 inch slot.[...]
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Nearshore Triple Tail and Gags
Florida Sportsman member: Shore Catch Fishing
Ran out of Fort Myers on Sunday with Michael on a 6 hr Near shore trip. Picked up a few dozen shrimp and netted spent a half hour netting a few pilchards to bolster our success chances. Anchored on some rubble 4 miles out and starting hammering the gags in various sizes. Nothing special. Used large gulp and pilchards. Once the sun came up we set out on our target species. Ran to about 11 miles in search of the oddball. Caught 15 or so and probably saw over 50 fish. Caught them on both pilchards and live shrimps [...]
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Sanibel Night Fishing
Florida Sportsman member: Captain Ross
Hit the lights last night looking for snook and left over tarpon. Not many to be found in the first couple spots. Did find a new technique for grouper though, bouncing a 10-inch Hogy on a 1-ounce jighead. The technique out fished live bait all night. Too bad they are not in season. We did manage one good snook [...]
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Windy, Snook Biting
Florida Sportsman member: Joupdog1
Went out after school to test out some new lures that Treasure Coast Tackle is now carrying. They are “Unfair Lures”. My first 2 casts resulted in 2 baby snook! The wind was blowing 15 out of the north, but I was hiding in the mangroves. One snook after another on the Unfair Lures Mullet. All around 20 inches until my buddy shows up and hooks up to a much better one. Pulls some drag then I go down and land it.[...]
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Trying to Avoid the Wind
Florida Sportsman member: InshoreSlam
Headed out this morning around 0930 with a good friend of mine and fellow capt. looking for the allusive tripletail. After venturing off the beaches we figured out it was too windy and the water that was hitting us over the sides was just too damn cold!! Long story short, the tripletail trip was cut short, and we fell back on what we do best…catch redfish in the shallows. After running around some of the local keys, dodging the wind and the low tide that was even too shallow at times for my ranger flats boat..we found some very large mullet schools that we figured would be holding some reds.[...]
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Pine Island Trout
Florida Sportsman member: jvanpelt
Today I decided to hit the water as the wind finally decided to die down. Today was a perfect day on the water. No wind, cool weather, crystal clear water and BIG trout[...]
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Redfish Fury
Florida Sportsman member: GatorInPISound
We’ve had some pretty good trips the last few times out. Yesterday, amid tournament boats zooming all over, we were able to catch 24 redfish out of some pot holes. We used light tackle to land the fish from 20 to 27 inches [...]
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Sunday Slam in the Harbor
Florida Sportsman member: GitchaPull
Took the girlfriend out Sunday. We slept in and got a late start, on the water at 11 a.m. to catch the last bit of the outgoing tide. This was her second time on a boat in saltwater. She wanted to catch a “big fish” and I said “hmm, o.k.” She got her wish. This was her first fish she’s ever caught [...]
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