GOOD PRE-HOLIDAY BITE

As I write our report for the week the weather and fishing has changed considerably. Early in the week the weather was great and fishing was good then we had a full day of much needed rain at mid week followed by cold weather that set in as families were enjoying their Thanksgiving feast. It's our coldest weather of the season and no doubt well have fish on the move.

This snook measured just shy of thirty-two inches
Again this week before the cold, bait was thick on the flats at first light, three or four throws of the net after a little chumming and the live well was full. Our tides weren't the best this week, (not real strong) but with patience we still caught some quality snook and redfish. Our largest snook measured just shy of thirty-two inches and we caught redfish from sixteen to over thirty inches. Again this week we did not catch a lot of redfish, but more than the previous week. All our snook and reds were caught on live shiners (pilchards), I wanted to try cut bait but between catfish and pinfish it was near impossible. The cold weather will push both off the flats and make cut bait a better option this week.

Thought we had a snook but instead a fat thirty-two inch redfish

A couple days we mackerel fished in Charlotte Harbor and the action was incredible. They were schooled heavy in eight to ten feet of water and eating everything in the water. Double and triple hook-ups were the norm as waves of fish moved through; these were nice fish up to twenty-nine inches. We caught them on live shiners, silver or gold spoons and white buck tails.

Another over-size Redfish measuring twenty-eight inches

We also caught some nice flounder while snook fishing, some really nice sea trout up to four pounds, bluefish, a few undersize gag grouper big jack crevalle and too many ladyfish .

Little Josh visiting from Michigan was all smiles after landing a bunch of Spanish Mackerel

Overall, the fishing was good before the cold weather, now we have to see how it's gonna be this week with the change.

This over thirty inch snook chased down a live bait on the retrieve

For charter information contact us at (239)283-7960 or www.fishpineisland.com.
"Catch the Action" with Captain Bill Russell

GREAT WEATHER AND GREAT SNOOK FISHING

What a great week! Beautiful weather, bait about as plentiful as it can get and good snook fishing, not a bad way to spend the week before Thanksgiving.

It makes it easy to head out before the sun to catch bait when you know you are to be greeted with a beautiful sunrise and a net full of bait. It's morning like these that make me realize why I love my job. And as a bonus the fishing was pretty good too!

We concentrated on snook this week and had our best snook fishing of the fall season over the past week, not for numbers of fish, but for size. We caught fish from twenty-eight to thirty-two inches on every trip and on Friday we caught and released one measuring thirty-seven inches. With the slot on snook of twenty-eight to thirty-three inches it's been a real challenge when customers want a snook dinner, but this week luck was on our side.


Bill Merrian of Minnesota with the biggest snook of the week measuring thirty-seven inches.

The bite wasn't on fire, but we were patient and worked holes where I knew there were fish. We would get one or two chances from each hole and more often than not bigger fish, then it was time to move to the next. We were fishing live pilchards and pinfish with the pilchards taking most of the abuse. It seemed like all the larger fish would follow the bait for awhile then blast them on the surface. All the fish even the biggest ones jumped more times than I can remember, the cooler water has really given them a lot of energy.

Although I thought we would catch a few more, we only caught one redfish, but it was a whopper measuring at thirty-three inches. I have been seeing scattered reds around the same holes as the snook, so I really expected a few more.

This ones for dinner, measuring in the slot at twenty-nine inches.

We also caught flounder each day and they were good size, big enough for a couple decent filets. They were also caught with the snook on the same baits. Our best bite was on the afternoon incoming tide, we were fishing the northeast side of Pine Island Sound and the eastern shore of Charlotte Harbor near Two-Pines. By the way, I am still seeing a lot of sharks, mostly bulls from four to six feet in these areas. They are cruising the edges of bars in areas where mullet, ladyfish or bluefish are schooling. Haven't had a chance to fish for them but we might this week.

For charter information contact us at (239)283-7960 or www.fishpineisland.com.
"Catch The Action" with Captain Bill Russell

BEAUTIFUL DAYS JUST TO DARN WINDY

Finally this week the weather cooled down slightly, with the change came strong northeasterly winds that hampered fishing most of the week. Extreme low tides were also encountered as a combination of the moon phase and the stiff winds.

To say the tide was low at the end of the week was an understatement, those late morning low's looked like someone pulled the cork and let all the water run out! It's normal to have really low tides in November and with the strong wind from the northeast it made for an extreme low and not much for a high. With these circumstances we found fishing difficult with a slow bite.
Big Jack Crevalle can really test an anglers will on light tackle

The best action we had came in Matlacha Pass where schooling jack crevalle were pushing bait schools into the shallows. They weren't little jacks and there were a lot of them, at least three schools working up and down the same drop-off. One great thing about jacks is they are almost always hungry, and this bunch was no exception. Another is the fight, it's been a while since I have been on schools in the ten to fifteen pound range, they are brutes! We had double and triple hook-ups and darn near spooled the reels more than once. If you want to wear out some anglers get them in a school of these guys. I mentioned last week that bonito was one of the hardest fighting fish around; I sure would like to strap a line to the tail of bonito and to a jack and see who would win the pull off.

We also found a few snook in the northern Sound, (none over twenty-six inches)but the bite was pretty tough. We hit one hole and caught half a dozen, that was our best snook stop as most often we would get one or two to chase the bait but no takers. We also caught and released a few trout and undersize gag grouper while snook fishing.

I'm happy the temperatures have dropped slightly but enough with the wind. Those that have fished with me know I like a breeze for many types of fishing but not gale force and for sure not out of the northeast and east. Everybody has heard that old adage "winds out of the east, fish bite the least", there's a lot of truth to it!

Contact us at (239)283-7960 or www.fishpineisland.com.
"Catch The Action" with Captain Bill Russell

WARM WEATHER KEEPS THE FISH COMING

Again this week the open water areas were the place to look for fish feeding frenzies. Charlotte Harbor and Boca Grande Pass were areas where a smorgasbord of predators and bait were found. The primary subjects were Spanish mackerel and bonito, but bluefish, jack crevalle, tarpon and shark were also tormenting fleeing bait schools. The days I was around Boca Grande Pass the activity was easy to locate, look for birds, often lots of birds. Once you spot them diving down and plucking scraps from the surface then you will notice the white froth from lots of small bait fish running for their lives with toothy critters right behind. We caught bonito (little tunny) up to twelve pounds with double hook-ups; it would be hard to convince me that pound for pound there is a harder fighting fish in the water. An absolute blast on light tackle!

This hard fighting twelve pound bonito was caught in Boca grande Pass .

We finished up trout season with good catches in southern Charlotte Harbor. Free-lining live shiners (pilchards) on the outgoing tide where bait schools where pushed against open water sand bars produced fat trout with the largest measuring twenty-three inches. Bluefish, large ladyfish, jack crevalle, cobia and tarpon were also hooked or caught with the trout. No, we did not boat the tarpon, but we did get a lengthy fight, four great jumps and her right up to the boat before the undersize hook pulled out. The angler was visiting Florida for the first time from Denmark and that first tarpon jump (very unexpected) was a thrill I don't think he will forget anytime soon!

While visiting Florida for his first time, Taus came all the way from Denmark to land this cobia that intercepted a bait intended for a sea trout For charter information contact us at (239) 283-7960 or http://www.fishpineisland.com/.
"Catch The Action" with Captain Bill Russell