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More Fishing and Boating

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• Seaworthy: Start the season right

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Southwest Florida anglers continued to find some productive fishing on most all fishing fronts up to the time Fay paid us a visit.

It is a good bet, weather permitting, our fishing and catching will have improved by the time you read this article. Some fishing spots will be better than others.

For example, the inland waters could be slower due to all of the freshwater flowing out of the Everglades and added rainfall from Fay last week.

Our outer shoreline and passes just might be a bit more productive. I would suggest fishing these areas on a high incoming and high falling tide as this is the time the water should have the highest amount of salinity.

A tip from one of the pros, Marco Island Captain Bill Walsh carries a kit aboard his boat he purchased at a pet store that measures the salinity of the water. This allows him to cherry pick areas that should have more productive fishing. Thanks, Bill.

The more you move offshore, the higher salinity making the nearshore fish havens a decent target for species including grouper, snapper, snook, jack, ladyfish, barracuda, shark and just maybe a cobia or amberjack.

Our offshore wrecks and towers and locations with hard bottom with some profile should be bouncing back as long as we do not get any heavy winds that muddy the water up again.

An e-mail just in before Fay arrived from local angler Jerry Francis. He writes in part, Bonnie Seigfried and Nancy Francis joined their spouses for a day of fishing. We fished a spot in 64 feet of water with hard bottom and some profile about seven miles north of a tower in my 31 Pursuit. Caught our limit of keeper red grouper and lots of snapper. The girls did a great job with the largest grouper near 20 pounds using live pinfish and minnows for bait.

The interesting thing about the large grouper Nancy caught it on light tackle and ran out and away, instead of down. That is the only reason we could land it. At the beginning of the fight we thought it was a shark or kingfish. What a surprise to see a nice size grouper.

We had 12 pound test line on the reel and it took 10 minutes to land.

Thanks for the great pictures and report Jerry.

Back to the current fishing. Consider yourself lucky if you have run into some patches of bait with Spanish mackerel and some of the species listed above in the bait. The good news is this action will be rebounding by the time you read this article.

Trolling spoons, deep running lures and heavy jigs on the way out and returning from you grouper honey hole could add some extra excitement and fish in the box.

A quick correction. My last article with some history about Speed Manefee was missing some copy as I lost it sending it to the Eagle. Speed’s grandma was a hand carved coconut setting on the table. Sorry about that.

Don’t forget the Marco Sportfishing Club meets the first Thursday of the month. It all starts at 6:30 p.m., Thursday, for members who exchange stories, tips and more at the Jewish Temple on the corner of Winterberry and Peru on Marco.

The public is welcome to attend beginning at 7 p.m. to see what the club is all about and join the club if they wish. In house fishing tournaments, picnics, cruises, luncheons and guest speakers are some of the activities.

You may call Peter Archidiacone 394-1136 or visit their Web site www.marcosportfishingclub.com for more information about the MSC.

Mark your calendar for the Conservancy of Southwest Florida Second 2008 Red Snook Catch and& Release Charity Tournament. This International Game Fish Association-certified tournament will be held October 3 through October 5. Teams, individuals and junior anglers under age 16 can participate.

Leatherwood Construction is the 2008 presenting sponsor. Other participating sponsors include M & I Bank, Naples Harbor Yacht Club, Comcast, ESPN-AM Radio, Naples Yacht Club and Florida Fishing Weekly.

Roland Martin, legendary angler and television host of Fishing with Roland Martin Show will again host the three day tournament, a benefit to raise funds for the Conservancy of Southwest Florida water quality programs.

The kick off party ad auction is Oct.3 at the Naples Harbor Yacht Club. Anglers will launch from Naples, Goodland and Chokoloskee Saturday, Oct. 4 and 5. The awards ceremony is that Sunday evening.

To register contact Meghan Clancy at 403-4200. Registrations will be accepted until Sept. 22. You may also visit their Web site www.theredsnook.com for more information.

There is more exciting news about this years tournament and I will try to get it to you in my next article.

Catch you later!

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Red Stier is a biweekly contributor to the Marco Island Eagle. Questions or comments may be directed to redstier@aol.com or 172 Trinidad St., Naples, FL 34113.