Fishing with Capt. George Tunison | Pompano, whiting and sheepshead are all tasty treats
Pompano stuffed turkey? Don’t think so. Oysters in the dressing? Definitely! Last Thanksgiving was the year of the Grand Turducken stuffed with Cajun cornbread. If you aren’t familiar, a turducken is a boneless turkey stuffed with a duck and a chicken along with some type of seasoned stuffing. Don’t care for duck then turporkens are also available online.
Put a plate of pompano, roasted turkey or our arriving sheepshead on the table and I’m giving thanks no matter the date. Pompano reports this week from Boca Grande and Captiva Pass beaches, Jug Creek Shoals and Burnt Store Bar. The beaches also host late-leaving, small snook, tasty whiting and not-so-tasty jacks. Tip your pompano and whiting jigs with small gobs of shrimp as well as Fishbites. Experiment with bright colors for jigs and Goofy Jig rigs and make sure to bounce it on the bottom, stirring up sand and sediment on every retrieve.
You can purchase commercial pompano rigs or easily assemble your own. Start with a 30-inch piece of 30-pound fluorocarbon main line and attach a swivel to one end and a snap swivel to the other end. Add two dropper loops spaced apart along the line. Attach two, 6-inch pieces of 15 to 20-pound test fluorocarbon leader line to the dropper loops. Thread bright colorful beads and mini-floats on to this 15 to 20-pound line and finish by attaching two 1/0-2/0 kahle or circle hooks. The mini-floats keep the baits slightly off bottom out of crab danger and the colors attract fish. Snap a pyramid sinker onto the bottom end of the leader and you have a pompano/whiting rig suitable for the beach, pass, shoals and channel edges.
Bright bead colors like orange spaced along the leader attract pompano to your offering. Orange is a good color as it mimics highly coveted sand flea eggs. Shrimp, sand fleas and clam strips are top pomp baits used to catch these hard-fighting and delicious-on-the-table little members of the Jack family.
The whiting or southern kingfish being caught around our passes and associated surf zones are also good table fare featuring a mild, sweet taste. Fish for them with standard pompano rigs and jigs as well. These fish are listed by the FDA as a healthy fish choice due to their low mercury content. They don’t get large. The Florida record weighs in at 2.8 pounds. Whiting are considered to be an unregulated species by our FWC.
Sheepshead are slowly moving in but currently favoring nearshore structure. Continued cold fronts will really get the action going over the coming weeks which is good news as they are fun to catch, fight hard and taste oh so good. Gloves and electric knives make cleaning easier and safer. Fiddler crabs, shrimp and clam bits, even worms, all make good baits. Pick up a few plastic fiddlers at the tackle store to jig around bridge structure bases. These lures work.
Caught quite a few trout this past week in north Matlacha Pass’ eastern side on soft plastics, Skitterwalks, MirrOdine’s and slow retrieved keel flies, which also produced redfish during the fishing day. Remember to never pass up a few casts around mullet schools as they often host redfish and larger trout taking advantage of the easy pickings bottom creatures spooked up and out of the bottom vegetation by the passing school of herbivores.
Redfish are living along and under the mangroves on higher water and tailing on the low. Thanksgiving Day features low afternoon tides beginning at 2 p.m. with the same on Saturday and Sunday at 3:30 and 4 p.m.
Lane and mangrove snapper swimming on near shore numbers along with some sheepshead. King and Spanish macs from the passes to offshore.
Cooling inshore waters means lighter lines, slower lures and retrieves, bait, longer casts and a stealthy approach in clear water.
Low water in the afternoons, so use caution.
Happy Thanksgiving to all!
Capt. George Tunison is a Cape Coral resident fishing guide. You can contact him at 239-579-0461 or via email at captgeorget3@aol.com.