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Updated 1/2/2012
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Big Cold Front
Welcomes In
The New Year
After a near record December heatwave that brought weeks of
highs in the low 80s and perfect Florida winter time conditions,
the coldest temperatures of winter are on the way as I write
this. |
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Like the usual cold front pattern, fishing will by lively today
as the front goes through and then will slow way down the day after the
front until it slowly recovers as things start to warm back up. These
cold fronts are all just a part of fishing and learning the fish
patterns of winter.
Although we keep hearing reports of red tide in our area, the middle to
northern sound remains free of the toxic algae bloom. Large numbers of
dead fish could be found around the causeway to the Sanibel Lighthouse
although the dead fish all looked like they had been dead for a long
time and had blown in from somewhere else. I did hear a few reports of
bait dying in anglers’ live wells around Punta Rassa early in the week.
Once north of Tarpon Bay, the sound was pristine with clear water and
lots of bait and fish activity.
Don't let all these shocking TV reports of red tide keep you from
goingout and wetting a line or spending some quality time on the water.
TVnews simply wants to sensationalize the naturally occurring red tide
to boost ratings. If you want to know if the red tide is in our
areacheck it out with your own eyes and nose. Take a walk out on the
dockat Jensens Twin Palms on Captiva, have a good look across the sound,
talk to people who make their living on the water and make the
callyourself. How often do TV media get out on the water? Probably
never.
If I have one more client from Wisconsin call me to tell me how bad
ourred tide is because they have seen it on the news I'm gonna freak!
Fishing this week was good and just got better and better the closer the
cold front got. The super low morning tides we had this week had the
fish bunched up and feeding hard. Redfish were the main target.
Most were on the small side but the action was non-stop once you located
them.
Although the big redfish of the week on my boat was only 24 inches, the
action at times was awesome, with several double headers. Every trip
this week we managed a few keeper reds along with some other mixed bag
fish for dinner including pompano, flounder and sheepshead.
Catch-and-release snook fishing around the passes only produced a
fewfish but they were worth the wait as most where quality fish. The
bestsnook bite was on the end of the outgoing tide. Snook to 30 inches
were caught this week with a few bigger ones lost too. The 30-incherwas
caught by 14-year-old Max Bergmann from Minnesota with the water
temperature in the high 60s. The snook hit the bait so lightly I would
have guessed it was a small fish at first. Not until a minute or sointo
the fight did the snook reveal itself, making a few great jumps and
runs. We snapped a few pictures and released the fish unharmed.
One of the things I really like about winter time fishing is the huge
variety of fish that can be caught. My go-to winter rig of a live shrimp
on a jig head will produce a crazy mixed bag. A few trips this week we
had around 10 different species caught. You often have to fish though a
lot of small fish while using live shrimp you never know what that next
bite will bring.
It could be something unexpected, another bait-stealing small mangrove
snapper or it could be that one big fish that got you out on the water.
Click the links below to view copies of my other recent reports.
12-12-2011 -
12-19-2011 -
12-26-2011
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