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Updated 2/01/10
Trout The Best
Action Right Now
This week fishing was a vast improvement over what it
has been. Not only has the water temperature warmed up to mid-
60s the majority of the dead fish that were floating around all
over the bay have either sunk to the bottom or washed out to sea
on the tide. It's still hard to forget the devastating cold
water snook kill we just had as I have not caught a snook in
weeks, even by accident. This time of year I always catch a few
snook while throwing jigs or targeting redfish against the
mangroves and oyster bars. |
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Trout and redfish fishing where consistent all week with lots of
trout caught every time out. When I was able to locate the redfish,
action was good with five or six taken out of one spot before moving on.
The reds were all on the smaller side with rats measuring 16-20 inches
on average. The area around Foster's Point on North Captiva held some
much bigger reds but I was just not able to get them to eat a bait.
Trout was without a doubt the best action in town this week. Even when
not trying to catch trout while targeting mangrove shorelines for
redfish, there they were. I have been catching the trout with a few
different methods depending on the water depth I'm fishing them in.
Throwing soft plastic jigs on the flats has been a no-brainer with trout
caught on almost every cast.
Shallower flats and edges seem to be holding the largest numbers of
trout with the fish running 14 to 20 inches. In deeper water a live
shrimp fished close to the bottom has been the better method.
I did make it out a few miles offshore one day this week on a charter
targeting sheepshead. Most of our nearshore reefs are starting to load
up with these tasty fish. We did not have a great day due to windy
conditions but did manage about 10 nice keepers. One sunken barge out a
few miles from Redfish Pass was the hot spot of the trip with the bite
going off for about 20 minutes before shutting down.
We caught some other mixed bag fish including grunts, flounder, red
grouper and mangrove snapper. This run and gun reef fishing can really
be a blast as you never know what you're going to find. What amazed me
while offshore was the lack of the usual bait and birds over the reefs.
I think the cold really pushed all the bait out to deeper warmer water.
Just a heads up to all you grouper fisherman: both recreational and
commercial fishing on the species closed February 1 and will stay closed
through March 31. Closing this recreational fishery does not make any
sense at all. With such strict limits on grouper already set for the
recreational angler what's the point? With commercial fishing
responsible for roughly 95 percent of all total grouper taken in the
gulf, just close commercial and give us recreational guys a chance out
there.
Then to make it even worse for us recreational guys out there, they
lowered the minimum size of red grouper for commercial fisherman from 20
inches to 18 inches. How can that help anyone but the commercial guy?
Click the links below to view copies of my other recent reports.
01-11-2010
- 01-19-2010
- 01-25-2010
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