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More Fishing and Boating

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• Seaworthy: Start the season right

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April is just around the corner and Southwest Florida anglers will be ready, willing and able to take advantage of warmer weather and water with softer winds.

The last days of March did cut anglers some slack allowing them to get out on the water comfortably.

Offshore anglers should be able to plan their trip knowing it will be comfortable with a good chance of successful catching for species with an excellent food value including grouper, snapper, Spanish mackerel, kingfish, cobia and amberjack.

It is a good bet there will be increased patches of bait from the passes out with a nice selection of species working the bait including Spanish mackerel, trout, jack, bluerunner and ladyfish. Additional kings might be found at the nearshore wrecks and fish havens.

Setting a live bait such as a pinfish, grunt, small bluerunner or jack near the surface while grouper grabbing could also add another king to the box. Do not forget the chum.

The trick for a successful trip is to target several species as the rules and regulations keep changing producing a narrower window for size and numbers allowed. Over fishing of some species both recreational, commercial and mismanagement of other species such as the giant Goliath grouper has led to these changes.

As long as I am on the subject I will add sheepshead, black drum and flounder to the mismanagement list as they are not protected with closed seasons during their spawning season in Southwest Florida shoreline and inland waters.

Flounder really stand out in my memory of just how good the flounder fishing was years ago when we used to camp out weekends on the southern tip of Keewaydin Island. One night I was restless and decided to make a pot of coffee, it was bout three in the morning. I was watching two men gigging fish out of their boat. Gigging certain species was legal then.

We had a strong incoming tide and they would run the boat to the mouth of the pass. A lantern was placed on the bow of the boat. One fellow would keep the boat close to the shoreline as it drifted in with the current the other fellow would do the gigging from the bow. They moved in close and stopped at my camp on one drift.

I knew them and got them a cup of coffee then asked what they were gigging. To my surprise they answered flounder and one fellow lifted the canvas off the fish box, a large homemade wooden fish box. It was filled to the top with large flounder. It was also quite common to catch nice size flounder while jigging for snook during a falling tide in the same area.

Flounder for the most part are gone in our area but they are not alone. Just about two hundred feet from our camp there was a little cut in the shoreline laced with large clams. My son and his buddy would dig them up and bring a bucket full of them to the tent. Take them back I would tell them and don’t tell anyone they are there. It worked for a long time but as time went by and more people arrived the clams are also all but gone.

Back to a good fishing game plan for near and offshore anglers. They might want to troll lures, spoons and large jigs on the way out to their honey holes. This could put some mackerel and kingfish in the box and get the trip jumped started. You can repeat the trolling on the way back if things have been slow.

Working tipped jigs over the nearshore fish havens and wrecks just might get you into some nice size trout. Fishing a live bait near the bottom might produce a nice size snook as these two spots should be loaded with snook for the next four months.

Live bait should be just above or just out away from the haven’s debris and heavier tackle is advised so you can deep the hooked snook out away from the debris and away from the giant Goliath grouper that will be after it.

Do not forget May has been added to the snook closure making May, June, July and August closed month for snook in our Gulf waters.

Our inland, outer shoreline, flats and passes should have increased in numbers of bait by the time you read this article in turn attracting a nice selection of species.

Keeping an eye on the tide charts and cherry picking the days with the stronger tides could work best. Working the outer shoreline on the incoming tide and working your way up into the inland waters with tipped jigs, live minnows, pinfish, crabs or shrimp will work.

Fishing a mangrove island with shallow water on one tip of it during a high falling tide can really get the action going as the current flushes the bait out and around the tip of the island.

Guess who is waiting there to ambush the bait. I have caught snook, snapper, redfish, tarpon and flounder quite often by being there and anchored up at daybreak, again during the high falling tide.

Have a great week!

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