05-26-2005, 12:13 PM
[
] Hi folks I just wanted to post a report on the fishing in South West Florida.Pine Island Sound fishing has exploded.Fishing for all species has been as good or better than it has been all year.Tarpon fishing has been excellent and will continue to be so thru the summer.I have been averaging 1 to 3 hookups per trip.The average fish are between 80 to 100lbs.Although their are some real brutes of over 200lbs being caught.Drifting live threadfin herring behind the boat off the beaches is the key to catching these monsters.
Snook are hitting with abandon.The snook are out of season right now but they are fun to catch and release.Snook are hitting all along the Sound.Fishing the mangrove trees and other structure is the key to catching snook.I like to use greenbacks floated on a cajun thunder popping cork.Also freelining greenbacks along structure will produce.
Redfishing has also been good mostly in the upper two thirds of the Sound.Reds are coming in all sizes from 14" dinks to over 30" brutes.On last Sundays trip I had a red break 30lb Power Pro braid.The reds are being caught in the same places as the snook.Most of the reds I have been getting are fishing the same cover as the snook.You can also catch them on a early morning flood tide along some of the oyster bars in the Sound.
Seatrout fishing has been excellent.Trout have been caught all over the place.The trick to catching trout is floating over the vast grass flats in 2 to 3ft of water.I use live bait on a popping cork and pitch them to the potholes in the flats.A pothole is a sandy depression in the grass that the trout use as ambush points.The trout have been running all different sizes.The trout fishing has been as good as I can remember in recent years.
I have been catching a lot of small sharks of different species.Small lemon sharks,blacktips have been caught on recent trips.Some friends at the local tackle store caught a lemon shark that was 9ft and over 300lbs.Spanish mackeral have been running large.On a recent trip for tarpon my client caught a mackeral that was 34" long.We even have caught some bluefish to 4lbs.For some photos log on to www.pine-island-fishing.com/photos.
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Snook are hitting with abandon.The snook are out of season right now but they are fun to catch and release.Snook are hitting all along the Sound.Fishing the mangrove trees and other structure is the key to catching snook.I like to use greenbacks floated on a cajun thunder popping cork.Also freelining greenbacks along structure will produce.
Redfishing has also been good mostly in the upper two thirds of the Sound.Reds are coming in all sizes from 14" dinks to over 30" brutes.On last Sundays trip I had a red break 30lb Power Pro braid.The reds are being caught in the same places as the snook.Most of the reds I have been getting are fishing the same cover as the snook.You can also catch them on a early morning flood tide along some of the oyster bars in the Sound.
Seatrout fishing has been excellent.Trout have been caught all over the place.The trick to catching trout is floating over the vast grass flats in 2 to 3ft of water.I use live bait on a popping cork and pitch them to the potholes in the flats.A pothole is a sandy depression in the grass that the trout use as ambush points.The trout have been running all different sizes.The trout fishing has been as good as I can remember in recent years.
I have been catching a lot of small sharks of different species.Small lemon sharks,blacktips have been caught on recent trips.Some friends at the local tackle store caught a lemon shark that was 9ft and over 300lbs.Spanish mackeral have been running large.On a recent trip for tarpon my client caught a mackeral that was 34" long.We even have caught some bluefish to 4lbs.For some photos log on to www.pine-island-fishing.com/photos.
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