SPRING FISHING BEGINS IN SOUTHWEST FLORIDA

March 20th, 2011

SPRING FISHING BEGINS IN SOUTHWEST FLORIDA

The last week of winter closed out in southwest Florida with a whimper as perfect weather and good fishing welcomed the arrival of spring. With blue skies and shirt sleeve temperature fishing continues to get better each day. Large fish continue to move inshore as schooling tarpon were sighted along with sharks, Spanish mackerel, big trout, redfish and snook.

For fun fast paced action it was hard to beat grass flats in six to ten foot depths. Areas off Bokeelia have given myself and many other boats pretty hot action for the past week. Spanish mackerel, some really big ones, kept the drags screaming each day, while trout, ladyfish, bluefish and sharks also joined in the fun. This is great action to get kids with little or no experience into fishing. We had a couple days with little guys under ten who never fished saltwater before, needless to say they now are hooked for life.

While the open water action as mentioned was very good, we had to work a little harder to catch a decent redfish, “gator” trout or snook. We did catch fat redfish up to twenty-seven inches in Matlacha Pass on the afternoon high water along with snook.

We caught our largest trout of the year, an honest twenty-six inch “gator” trout that was caught on a live shiner and released near Bokeelia. We also caught trout from fifteen to twenty-two inches but generally we could get only one or two from a hole then it was time to move to the next.


Tarpon are migrating into the waters around Pine Island each day; I have seen pods of several dozen in Charlotte Harbor, plus a couple cobia and plenty of sharks. Fishing will only get better and the fish bigger as we progress into the Spring fishing season.





For charter information, please contact us at:

“Catch the Action” with Captain Bill Russell
Phone: 239-283-7960
E-mail: gcl2fish@live.com
http://www.fishpineisland.com/

Sure Feels Like Spring in Southwest Florida

 

It’s still three week until its official, but it sure feels like spring has already arrived in southwest Florida. We are catching an increasing number of species around Pine Island and larger fish are moving in every day.

We found trout up to twenty-two inches over sand/grass patch bottom in three to five foot depths in northern Pine Island Sound, Spanish mackerel and small sharks were also mixed in.

A couple days with a strong southwest wind we fished Keys and Islands in mid Pine Island Sound and found plenty of action on redfish, although most are still running below the eighteen inch minimum we did manage a few keepers. Larger redfish and snook should come into the picture later this week with better tides.

We caught a couple nice pompano around Bokeelia and seen a steady increase in mackerel action in the Harbor. I am also beginning to see a few tarpon showing up in the Harbor and northern Sound and sharks up to six feet.

Most of our fish this past week were caught on live shrimp or shrimp artificials, we are making the transition to live bait as pilchards are arriving, but on many days shrimp was still the better bait.

Warm water equates to more and larger fish and that’s just what we are beginning to experience in our waters. Spring officially begins in about three weeks but we are on pace for an early start. Baitfish are beginning to arrive as are the large predator fish, let’s keep our fingers crossed that this trend continues.

It’s a great time to get out there and fish!

For charter information, please contact us at;

Phone: 239-283-7960

Website: http://www.fishpineisland.com/

E-mail: gcl2fish@live.com

“Catch the Action” with Captain Bill Russell