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More Fishing and Boating

• On the Hook: Be ready — and grateful — for what you get
• Collier, Lee among Top 10 most dangerous boating areas
• Anglers Outlook: The best bait to catch those huge tarpon

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I was sure I had the fishing forecast for the last days of March in the bag while preparing last week’s article. Now, here I am writing this forecast with my face a lot redder than it usually is because of a typo I made.

The last days of March should but did not cut anglers some slack allowing them to get out on the water comfortably, sorry about that.

The good news is it really does look like we will see some better weather as we move into April allowing offshore anglers to get out there knowing it will be more comfortable and with a good chance of successful fishing for species with an excellent food value including grouper, snapper, Spanish mackerel, kingfish, cobia and amberjack.

It is also a good bet our nearshore waters, from the passes out to 50 feet, will have many of the same species working the bait at the fish havens and wrecks. Don’t rule out working patches of bait that are on the move.

Trolling lures, spoons and jigs through them or drifting into and over the bait with tipped jigs or live bait could be successful also.

I did get some questions about the snook at the nearshore havens and wrecks. The most asked was, “you said use live bait such as pinfish, crabs, and minnows. Where or how do I get them?”

You could check in with the nearby bait shops and see what they carry, some do, some do not and many times they can be out of live bait such as shrimp or pinfish.

Many seasoned anglers will have a back up plan. Some will use a cast net or bait seine along the shoreline to catch their bait which can include minnows, mullet and pinfish. Other anglers will use cast nets near the channel markers just outside the passes. They will watch their recorder for any bait and if they think it is worth while, drop the anchor up current letting the boat drift back toward the markers. Some will have a chum bag out to attract the bait.

The cast net they use is larger with more weight than some other nets as the water is deeper and the net needs to sink down over the bait as quickly.

This method produces minnows for the most part. Other anglers will catch their bait by using rigs with up to three to four very small hair hooks spaced just a few inches apart with a pyramid sinker attached to the heavy monofilament leader. Forty pound test is plenty.

There are prepackaged bait rigs at the local bait and tackle shops. Some have small colored feather-like tips if you do not want to rig your own. Drop the rig down until the sinker hits bottom then raise it back up a few inches. Moving the rod tip up and down gently can improve your success rate. It is exciting to catch three or four baits with one pull.

Be sure the bait you put in the bait well is legal. Some species have size and bag limits. Using small pieces of squid or shrimp will also work well. Salting the bait down over night will make it more difficult for the bait to steal it. Using the hair hooks and prepackaged rigs for catching bait can be almost as much fun as catching the larger fish and can also produce some other species that will work for live or fresh cut bait such as small live bluerunner, jack and ladyfish.

While bottom fishing, set one of the live baits out which might add to the day’s excitement with a kingfish, shark, tarpon, barracuda or amberjack hitting it.

In the meantime, our inland, passes, flats and outer shoreline should hold it’s own with a great selection of species including snook, snapper, redfish, pompano and just maybe increased numbers of tarpon from 20 to in excess of 80 pounds as the water warms up.

Peter Arcidiacone, President of Marco Sportfishing Club (MSC) reminds us they meet the first Thursday of the month (next meeting April 3) at the Jewish Temple on the corner of Winterberry and Peru. The meeting for members begins at 6:30 p.m. The public is invited to attend at 7 p.m. to see what they are all about and join the MSC.

They offer their members in-house fish tournaments, picnics, group cruises and much more. The featured guess speaker will be well-known guide Captain Jay Pealer.

You may call Peter at 394-1136 for more information about the club.

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.