Kids miss out on fish adventures
Fishing is heating up. Snook as well as tarpon are on the move, according to the reports coming in.
Bait is showing up more these days and the snook are eating all you can toss them as they start their yearly trip to the beaches.
Last year was an awesome snook season, and this year should be “hot” as well. Try and take a few extra minutes to properly and gently release your catch and try to teach young anglers proper release and handling techniques.
Better yet, let’s create an artificial reef off Sanibel Island made up of video games, consoles, controls, plastic fake guitar games, and other such nonsense. I came home the other day and saw kids playing a toy plastic guitar game while watching a “guitar lesson” on the TV.
I asked, why they were not fishing? They told me they were practicing guitar. I said that’s not a guitar, it’s a toy. They said I’m old, I wouldn’t understand. I countered with, if you want to play guitar then why don’t you practice a real guitar instead of a toy that makes you think you are playing a guitar, when you clearly are not?
A look of collective disgust crossed their sun starved pale white faces as they continued their mindless game. I could hear them thinking, he’s old, he’s just out of it, maybe he will just fall out of that stupid boat next time and finally leave us alone.
Every time you go fishing make some of this stuff disappear and put it to good use by building the Sanibel Reef. Tough love.
Local angler Tom of Cape Coral had a good night this past week on an outgoing tide in south Matlacha Pass, on the Cape side, and in the river mouth. He caught some nice snook to 36 inches along with a 32- and a 28-inch fish. One fish was harvested for the table and the rest released.
One redfish was caught before the shuttle went up just before dark. All fish were caught on 4- 5-inch whitebaits as snook ignored the pinfish offered them.
Capt. Dick May of Easy Rider Charters tells me with the appearance of warm weather that fishing has really broken loose. On several charters this week he caught limits of trout up to 22 inches and limits of redfish.
Snook fishing has been very good. A few tarpon have been seen on the flats south of Captiva Pass. Spanish mackerel are in the passes with some inshore.
Whitebait is scarce, but starting to show up. One day there, the next day gone. The water is still clear in Pine Island Sound and the tides are higher.
D&D Marine in Matlacha reports fishing is hot with snook and redfish caught under the mangroves as well as Spanish mackerel on the beach and as far inshore as Jug Creek.
Big sale this week on Shimano Rods and Reels as well as Costa Del Mar sunglasses.
Capt. Rob Modys of SoulMate Charters reports excellent fishing earlier in the week, but still good as this report was written on Wednesday.
His highlight this week was two tarpon jumped in the center of Estero Bay while fishing for trout. One fish was more than 100 pounds.
Speaking of trout, the bite is good and the fish are big, without a million juveniles mixed in. His weapon of choice is the classic shrimp and popping cork.
His snook fishing has been good to excellent with last Monday being a 30-plus fish day. I think that rates as an excellent snook day.
Again, Estero Bay was the location of his catches. He has had good success catching bait on the beaches, but with the increasing winds Wednesday it was tough to try to get in close to throw the net.
Capt. George Tunison is a Cape Coral resident fishing guide. Contact him at captgeorget3@aol.com, or Flying Fins Sportfishing.