The warm weather prevailed one more week in Southwest Florida. After an awful January, the month of February has offered some of the warmest February days in recent memory. The wind has also been down; therefore good conditions were present for this fishing week.
My week started with Ray and Pam Boom. They live in Milford, Michigan and were enjoying their first vacation on Sanibel Island. The tide was starting to come in about 10:00am. I picked them up late in the morning so we could fish during the incoming period of the tide. When Ray and Pam came aboard my Action Craft, I had already filled the livewell with a few hundred “Shiners”, candy for any hungry fish we could find in our adventure.
Our first stop was along some deep sand holes adjacent to the oyster bars where I had been finding some Snook and Seatrout. In our very first cast we had a bite, and a seatrout was our catch. We spent about 2 hours in this area consistently catching small Snook and some nice Trouts. Later we moved to an open water flat in search of some Reds. We did not find as many Reds as I expected, but the Snook were plentiful and hungry along with some Seatrout and a few Reds. We had a fun time, the bite was pretty steady and in light tackle the Snook gave us some good action.
My next trip included angler Dean Gregory along with his wife Kathy. They are from Northern Illinois and they have been coming to Sanibel for many years. This was our first meeting, although they had fished the area with other guides. We were fishing on light tackle so early that morning I went and netted a few hundred “Shiners” for our trip.
Our morning started with a steady action of Seatrout and some small Snook. Dean and Kathy were casting their “shiners”, while I was giving some “freebies” to the Snook to see if I could get them going. Kathy suddenly had a good bite, her line was moving through the water pretty fast, and it was a nice Snook for sure. After a short battle, the Snook was coming close to the boat and we could see it well, it was a nice fish, definitely over the 26 inch that marked the beginning of the legal slot. Kathy did a great job and landed the fish. This was her second snook of the day and of her life.
After the tide got higher, we moved to a flat. We caught more Snook along with some good size Seatrout on this flat, but it also had a nice surprise in stored for us. We had cast an extra line, 8lb test, far away from the boat. I was keeping an eye on this rod while Dean and Kathy had their hand on the other 2 rods. I could see the line on the third rod slowly moving, I gave it to Dean and advised him to reel as fast as he could to tie the slack on the line. By now the fish was moving fast with the bait in it’s mouth. Dean tightened the line and struck gently, a “BIG” Snook came out of the water trying to spit the hook. We had a nice hookup on 8lb test so I coached Dean through the fight for we didn’t want to put too much pressure on the fish. The Snook took two long runs looking for any debris or cover for safety. Dean was doing a great job; the Snook was getting closer to the boat, but made one final dash toward the oyster bar. I jumped overboard trying to keep the fish from cutting the line. Dean kept working the fish and I could see the snook just a few feet from me, I grabbed the line and worked my way toward the fish and finally had my hand on her. She was beautiful, about 18lbs and full of power.
After a few photographs, we released the beauty. We were excited and happy of our opportunity to meet such a beautiful creature. It sure was an accomplishment on 8lb test.
Later in the week, I had John Slazinski and Mike McCary. John is from Detroit Michigan and Mike is from Chicago. Our outing was a fly-fishing charter; the guys enjoy freshwater fly-fishing so they wanted to try some Red fishing on fly while on Sanibel. We started slow with the Reds spooky and hard to see. After moving to a different flat our visibility improved but the Reds were still spooky and not in the numbers we were hoping for.
We moved to the third option of the day the visibility was good on this flat and after poling for just a short distance we started seeing Reds all over. We had many good chances with groups of 2 to 6 Reds crossing our bow. We also saw a few tailers but could not connect.
The end of the week got windy and the visibility decreased. The fishing changed and it became less reliable. Spring is coming and with it great fishing, Hallelujah!
Good Fishing!!
Capt. Rey
Seats are limited, so give me a call, or drop me an email, and let's GO FISHING !
Capt. Rey's Fishing Report