Another week has past in southwest Florida , actually two since my last report . This was due
to the weather because of it , I had to cancel all but two trips .Our first trip included anglers Chuck Becker and his friend Paul . Paul is an avid offshore angler , he spent part of the year in the Florida Keys . Chuck lives in Chicago and enjoys fishing during his annual visit to Sanibel Island .
We met at 10:00 am in Pta. Rassa and headed for the flats . The morning was cool but with a calm wind , a beautiful clear sky complimented our view of the young day . A well below average low tide limited the places we could fish . Wheels were almost needed to move around , it was that low ! For a couple of hours we fished deep holes and channels with no luck , but the tide was rising as were our expectations .
Finally we were able to get on the flats . The plan was to fish the deeper depressions on the
flats for redfish and seatrout . With a tide like this we were forced to sight fish since the fish were not really holding on the sandholes . Redfish started tailing on the flat , along with lots of sheepshead . Their tails swinging like a flag in the wind the reds presented the perfect target
for a well located shrimp . Some of the fish were in such shallow water that we could not even reached them . We also saw a school of reds but could not connect with them .
This can be a tough way to fish if you are not use to it . An accurate cast is needed to connect with this spooky fish . We had fish all around us when Chuck made a cast at a lay up Red . The Red ate the jig and after a few runs it got off . We tried hard but we were not successful . Paul mentioned how educational the trip was . It was a very different way to fish from what he was used to , but the morning was not a disappointment as they had witnessed an awesome display of nature.
My second trip was with anglers John O'Rourke and his friend Max Satterwhite . John lives in Florida while Max lives in Georgia . John is a saltwater fly angler but this was Max's first saltwater flats experience . They could not start fishing until the afternoon for they had a morning meeting . So in the morning I went to catch some live sardines for our trip . They are the best bait , but tough to catch in the winter time . After netting a livewell full of them , I went to scout some fishing grounds .
When I picked up the guys at noon the wind was howling from the north . We moved east and found some calmer water where we casted our sardines into the deeper depressions of the flats and had no luck . We then moved to the edge of a mangrove island where a deep hole usually held some fish during low tide .
There Max caught his first two snook while John caught one . We were casting close to the mangroves it seemed the fish did not want to move very far from the safety of the roots . This is normal behavior during the warmer months but not usually during winter when they love deep water . Nothing else happened there so we moved again to another island surrounded by deep water.
The fish were there and Max started catching some snook , John was not too far behind .
Snook and seatrout were holding in the deep water by the island , and they were very eager to eat our sardines . After John and Max each caught several snook and seatrout , we went to try for a slam . Redfish was all we needed .
I took them to a flat where I had seen Redfish earlier . The overcast and windy conditions made things very tough . John caught a 5 lb Seatrout and a small Jack Crevalle , but the reds proved to be our challenge that day .
We had a fun day , Max's first saltwater flats experience was a success while John promised to be back armed with his fly rod . Although with the strong north wind and difficult conditions , we managed to catch snook , seatrout , and jack crevalle . Not too bad for a windy , winter day !
See you next week ,
Capt. Rey
Capt. Rey's Fishing Report
