Winter Fishing in SWFLWell, I guess it was too good to be true. Apparently Florida is not skipping winter this year. Our fall through holiday season was so much warmer than usual that we were beginning to think that El Nino was our friend. Well, I guess he had other plans. Since January has begun, we've went from 85 degrees ; catching Tarpon and Kingfish to several cold fronts, tornadoes and catching Sheepshead, Snapper, Trout and Redfish. That's not all bad (TORNADOES ARE BAD) but it's been quite a change in just a few short weeks.
The temperatures have been averaging 65 degrees. Our better days are around 75. The targeted species have been Redfish, Trout, a lot of Sheepshead and Snapper. When the wind is calm, I like to try to get out to one of the wrecks and fish for Kingfish and Grouper. The next couple weeks are looking better with the majority of the days in the 70's. The Fall Weather Fishing ReportThe last week of fishing here in Fort Myers has been great. Although it's November the seasonal temperatures have not arrived yet. That's been great for fishing even though I wouldn't mind a brief cool front. The temperatures have been in the high 80's with no cool down in sight. This summer time weather has allowed for come pretty good summer time fishing. Depending on the wind speed, I've been able to get out of the backbay a little bit to fish for Tripletail, Kingfish, Snapper and Cobia.
On one trip last week, the wind was calm so we fished off of the beaches of Sanibel and ran the buoys for Tripletail. We caught so many that we began to get really picky about size. If they were small, we made our way to the next bouy knowing it was bound to be full of more Tripletail. The great thing about these fish is that they are great table fare and easy to catch; That's if they're there. We used 20 lb leader, #2 hooks and small pilchards. They prefer small bait. You can literally throw it on their heads and they will eat it. On Saturday I fished the local Fort Myers Chamber tournament that we enter every year. Last year we placed 3rd, this year we basically donated our money to the chamber and decided to go off the beaten path. We fished for nothing that was part of the tournament. Sometimes when you get out on the water and you realize the opportunities right for another species, you just go for it. We went for it and our intuition was right. We caught, Snapper, Kingfish, Cobia and Tripletail. Again that day the wind was at a minimum making it easy to go offshore about 2 miles. After fishing the buoys for Tripletail using the same method as above, we went to a number that I have and we hit the honey hole. We fished a ledge there using 40 lb braid, 80 lb wire leader and #8 hooks freelining Threadfins. We had a good time but needless to say, we missed the tournament deadline. I mean, how embarrassing would that be to show up with no Snook, Redfish or Trout to weigh in. Oh well, there's always next year....fort myers tarpon fishing charters |
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