Fishing with Capt. George Tunison | Fishing will be challenging this weekend
With weekend nights in the 40’s, negative tides for the morning and a full moon looming, fishing for the inshore angler will be challenging this weekend. Unless you’re hoping for some early morning low tide sight fishing, staying in bed and fishing the afternoon water warm-up may up your odds for success. Safe offshore and nearshore trips will be possible weather permitting. As of this writing 10-15 mph northerly winds are predicted for the weekend inshore but speeds are unknown far off the coast.
If you have any weather doubts, no matter how badly you want to get out there after a long week at work, be a smart weather wise captain and live to fish another day. You are responsible for everyone aboard.
Weather permitting, a large variety of snappers, sheepshead, grunts, and groupers all await your baits on nearshore numbers with poor, neglected, lonely and hungry for your bait specimens like amberjack and grouper growing larger the deeper you fish
Nights in the 40’s coupled with low water will move local trout, snook and reds into deeper water, creeks, canals and marinas where on bright sunny afternoons and if you take your time, you might spot the snook of a lifetime belly to the sand along a shallow shoreline getting a solar warm-up. Upriver in the Caloosahatchee snook and other fish will exhibit the same behavior but instead use shallow mud flats that warm quickly in the afternoon sun. These are typically large females trying to survive the cold, responsible for future snook stocks and not usually interested in eating. Over the slot limit and out of season till March, the best choice is to just simply stop and enjoy the sight of an over 40″ snook resting in mere inches of clear winter water and at the same time wondering why you never catch one like that with your expensive boat, six rods, six lure boxes and military grade electronics.
The “Big Freeze of 2010” resulted in a massive statewide snook die-off. Local snook and tarpon sought refuge from the cold by leaving the shallower waters and moving into the deeper creeks. Continued cold temperatures trapped them there finally covering the surface with thousands of dead and dying snook from bank to bank. The one thing that really stood out was that the vast majority of dead snook were large females. Juvenile snook fared much better and where comparatively absent. The second thing that made me shake my head was not only the sheer numbers of really big snook trapped in just one creek alone but the fact that even with this huge volume of trophy fish swimming around out there most folk’s fish for years and still never catch one of these really big specimens they dream of.
Marinas as well as deeper creeks can be real honey-holes during cold snaps but first be sure to check if the marina you plan on fishing has installed no-fishing signs. If fishing is allowed, bouncing lead head jigs off expensive fiberglass hulls, loud music, speeding, etc. are all great ways to actually get the marina posted with no fishing signs, ruining it for everyone.
This is our slow time here in SW Florida which makes the travelling angler want to grease his hubs and hit the road. Head south to the Ten Thousand Islands maze? Big bass anglers will hit Lake O and Central Florida lakes while salty types will roll over to the east coast fishing from Fort Pierce on south for some outstanding up close to the beach fast action on a large variety of big hungry predators easily accessible by foot or small boat. Blacktip sharks spawn along the beaches for outstanding action on lite tackle, high flying spinner sharks while kites fly for acrobatic sailfish.
All in all the Keys takes the number one spot for the large variety of fish and beautiful winter weather.
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.