Boca Grande, Fl
17 Dec.. 2005

 

Fishing Boca Grande is always a surprising.  Yesterday, I was fishing Turtle Bay for seatrout on a fly.  While drifting over a fairly clear flat I surprised a very large sting ray snoozing on the bottom.  When he fled, he was followed by an equally large cobia.  I was agog.  It would be hard to convince me that cobia will come up on a shallow flat in clear water.  I know there are a number of cobia cruising the deep water of Turtle Bay, but as usual, they surprised me.

 

It is no surprise to find great fishing in the Charlotte Harbor area right now.  Water temperatures are just right for redfish and seatrout.  Blue fish and ladyfish are in abundant and snook are still doing well.  A quick survey of anglers on the Boca Grande Causeway fishing pier revealed the secret of great big sheephead; tube worms.  Gentlemen with leathery skin and cautious eyes told me the really big ones fell to reclusive worms, but no one would tell me where they got them.

 

There are no deep dark secrets to catch and release seatrout fishing.  Any deep grass flat or large pot hole with a dark bottom will have seatrout in them.  If you can't catch a seatrout you better take up golf, 'cause you obviously can't fish.  Just remember to use barbless, single hook flies and jigs.  Even if you use plugs or jerk baits, crimp your barbs.  "Preserve and protect" is not just lip service.

 

Redfish have been hard for me to catch on a fly, but anglers using spoons and jigs tipped with shrimp are doing well on reds up to 14 lbs.  The big reds are deep in cuts, holes and under docks.  Smaller fish up to 6 or 7 pounds are tailing on low water as long as the wind is not blowing too much.

 

"Where are the snook?" he asked.  "Why, where they always are this time of year.", I answered.  If that's not smoke and mirrors I don't know what is.  What I just said was "I don't know".  The truth is somewhere between.  There are places that I know are full of snook, but they are difficult to catch.  There are other areas that have snook occasionally; say on a certain tide.  Then there are a few places I can almost always catch a snook.  The problem is they have these fins and tails.  They move around, they live still and then dart away before you can cast.  But to dissect the problem, we should not be targeting snook while they are out of season.  Between the cold weather and stress on the fish when caught and released, we are not following the spirit of the law.

 

Give yourself a holiday gift, go fishing.

 

Fish Hard, 

Pete