Leonard Nelson’s 26-inch walleye was just one of the highlights he and Douglas Knigge took off Davis Key, on their Get Hooked charter with Capt. Matt DeAngelis.
Wisconsin angler Douglas Knigge’s two-foot trout was one of 50 fish he and fellow Wisconsinite Leonard Nelson caught Sunday on their Estero Bay trip with Get Hooked Capt. Matt DeAngelis.
Karen Theis’ sister Gretchen used a live shrimp to tempt this crevalle jack at Little Carlos Pass.
Jason Kaufman’s 8-1/2-pound “hog” was the bass of the day Saturday, on his friends trip to the South Bay area of Lake Okeechobee with Brian Brandfass and Richard Christiaens.
Rich Christiaens’ 6-1/4 pounder got off to a bright start to a day that included 30 nice bass pulled from the sparse grass and spray in the South Bay area of Lake Okeechobee.
Tommy Anna will be returning to Quebec with this father, Tom, this trophy photo and an official Florida trophy bass citation for this 8-1/4 pound bass he caught with Capt. Bo White of Roland Martin Marina & Resort.
Bloom concentrations (>100,000 cells/liter) were present in 31 samples, including 20 in Sarasota County, one in Charlotte County, and four in Lee County.The erratic red tide continued this week in some potentially deadly concentrations, but anglers are still finding plenty of hungry fish in unaffected waters.
“The Gulf of Mexico is teeming with life,” according to A&B Charters from Port O’ Call Marina in Naples. The Bonita Beach Fishbuster Charters report noted “some red tide, close, but none beyond five or six miles.”
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Inshore reports from Estero Bay to Pine Island Sound and into Charlotte Harbor have also been good for redfish, trout, snapper and some mangrove snapper action.
Trafford Lake boaters have been doing well with crappie, and largemouth bass have come in strong in Lake Okeechobee.
OFFSHORE: A&B Charters Capt. Jim Rinckey reports continued fabulous fishing in Naples, where the veteran guide says he’s never seen such good gag grouper action. Gags, mangroves and yellowtail snappers have been mainstays since Hurricane Ian, but cobia, African pompano, king mackerel and Spanish mackerel and various shark species have also been biting well. hard structure, such as artificial reefs and limestone ledges. The structure fishing has been so good that it has been avoiding the live hard bottom areas where the off-season red grouper and big snapper bite has been equally hot, a great sign for season openers on January 1 The change in tactics has been to initiate night trips for the snapper, whose action has slowed somewhat as the turbidity in the inshore waters continues to clear. Cloudy water is a plus when fishing during daylight hours for mangoes and “leader shy” yellowtails, which also feed regularly at night.
Capt. Adam Sanders of A&B Charters’ mangrove snapper and grouper snapper hit a live squirrelfish (sand perch) on hard structure in 60 feet of water.
Fishbuster Charters Capt. Dave Hanson reports that he ventured 19 miles west of New Pass on Tuesday on a “casual sightseeing/exploration/fishing trip” with longtime customers Erwin and Millie Metusiak, who usually they opt for fishing in the bay. They saw a lot of debris still littering the mangrove shores of the bay, with some trees about a mile offshore. There were bottlenose dolphins “everywhere (which usually means no fish).” They did some bottom fishing with frozen squid, releasing half a dozen grunts, a dozen undersized red grouper, a 12 inch dance fish, lots of squirrelfish and plenty of potential keeper, but an out of season snapper .
ESTERO BAY: Get Hooked Charters Capt. Matt DeAngelis reports that Wisconsin anglers Douglas Knigge and Leonard Nelson landed more than 50 redfish, snook and trout on Sunday, casting live shrimp and scaled sardines around the mangrove islands of the outer bay and oyster bars from Davis Key to New Pass. The captain has focused on finding schools of mullet in good moving water to locate the game fish.
Leonard Nelson’s 26-inch walleye was just one of the highlights he and Douglas Knigge took off Davis Key, on their Get Hooked charter with Capt. Matt DeAngelis.
Frequent contributor Karen Theis lost her favorite fishing spots, including her home in Hurricane Bay, but still managed to wet a line with her sister, Gretchen, who caught a crevalle jack while fishing from the Bonita Beach Causeway at Little Carlos Pass.
CALOOSAHATCHEE RIVER: Lehr’s Economy Tackle owner Mike Westra has had several reports of redfish, as well as walleye, trout and snapper bites in the 22-1/2 square mile river mouth bounded by Shell Point, Punta Rassa and Sword Point. He has had no reports of anglers fishing the increased discharges at Olga’s Franklin Lock for snook and tarpon, which he speculated is because that group of casters has been too busy catching fish off the recreation area dock at North Shore.
PINE ISLAND SOUND: The captain of the city of St. James, George Grosselfinger, has suffered overboard problems that began when Ian submerged his engine in the boat lift. But he made a recent run to Rocky Channel off Pineland, where he used topwater plugs and rigs to catch big trout and undersized smolts.
Lehr reports that anglers casting pompano rigs (brightly painted, leaded hooks, including Gulf Stream High Jinks lures) have caught not only their namesake species, but also Spanish mackerel and ladyfish around Captiva pass And increased sales of DOA Deadly Combo and Bomber clacker cork rigs indicate that trout fishing has moved up a notch on the sound’s grass flats.
PAST MATLACHA: Capt. Gregg McKee of Wildfly Charters reports lots of pompano jumping in the wake of his flats skiff, as well as lots of keeper trout on the flats north of Matlacha. He also reports many stingrays congregating in the pass, so he hopes to soon catch cobia that accustom the rays as they drag baitfish and crustaceans with their wings.
PORT OF CHARLOTTE: Lehr’s reports a killer trip for redfish from an angler who caught live sardines for the first time by tapping a pole at Bokeelia Bar at the mouth of Jug Creek in Shell Cut. The reds, all of high or slot size, were then found on the harbor shore, just north of the cut.
FRESH WATER
LAKE TRAFFORD: Lake Trafford Marina reports that boaters fishing Missouri jigs or live fish have been catching limits or near limits of specks while drifting in the central depths of Lake Immokalee. Captain Cody McClelland docked with 21 after a scouting trip on Tuesday.
LAKE OKEECHOBEE: Roland Martin Marina & Resort Capt. Bo White reports that largemouth bass have moved into the inshore spawning areas, including the shorelines north of Indian Prairie Channel to Tin House Cove or to the south towards the island of Cavall. He’s been scoring in both directions finding clean water and hard-edged vegetation, where customers have excelled at live wild shiners. He recommends very slowly fishing a Texas-rigged black and blue speed zoom worm as the artificial bait of choice.
Tommy Anna will be returning to Quebec with this father, Tom, this trophy photo and an official Florida trophy bass citation for this 8-1/4 pound bass he caught with Capt. Bo White of Roland Martin Marina & Resort.
PHOTO OF THE WEEK
Rich Christiaens’ 6-1/4 pounder got off to a bright start to a day that included 30 nice bass pulled from the sparse grass and spray in the South Bay area of Lake Okeechobee.
Lake Okeechobee lunker bass have caught fire.
FISH TIP
Jason Kaufman’s 8-1/2-pound “hog” was the bass of the day Saturday, on his friends trip to the South Bay area of Lake Okeechobee with Brian Brandfass and Richard Christiaens.
Bass anglers on Lake Okeechobee rarely have good things to say about the herbicide program the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission uses to keep the Big O from becoming overgrown with aquatic vegetation. No, Brian Brandfass, who took friends Rich Christiaens and Jason Kaufman on a “pretty good trip” in the South Bay area, where they specifically fished for sparse grass and sportily sprayed reeds, with artificial lures. They cast watermelon seeds Speed Worms and Reaction Innovations Skinny Dipper swimbaits that turned on about 30 bass averaging 2 to 3 pounds, with three weighing 5, 6-1/4 and 8-1/2 pounds. Very well indeed.
HOT POINTS
No. 1: Bokeelia Island for big reds.
No. 2: Rocky channel for large trout.
No 3: Captiva Pass for pompano and Spanish mackerel.
No. 4: Mouth of the Caloosahatchee for walleye and walleye.
No. 5: Estero Bay for reds, trout and snook.
No 6: Offshore for grouper and snapper.
No. 7: Lake Trafford for shit.
Lake OKEECHOBEE
No. 1: Indian Prairie Canal to Tin House Cove or Horse Island for bass.
No. 2: South Bay for bass.
