Holiday season’s a great time to go fishing

November 27, 2019

As we move into the holiday season, it's a great time to spend a relaxing day of fishing with friends or family on the waters of Southwest Florida. The weather is often great with fish hungry as we move into cooler days. It's a great time to enjoy a simple day of fishing -- just grab some bait, hit the water and see what you catch. To me, it's fun and exciting when you do not know what the next fish on your line might be.There is no doubt that shrimp are the all-around best and most productive bait for inshore and nearshore fishing. Apart from mullet, everything eats them. Plus, they are ...

Crevalle jack — a mean package by any name

November 22, 2019

Some facts about our jacks:A member of the carangidae family; also called common jack, toro, cavally, cavalla, horse crevalle, even canal tuna or by any other name, this is one mean package of brute force, fast fins and real bad attitude.The IGFA All Tackle World Record Book recognizes 15 ...

Fish feeding habits change as weather cools

November 15, 2019

Here comes some cold as an unusually long summer finally starts to let go. Skipped fall and going straight into winter? Ask the weather man? Nope, gave up on that long ago. One thing for sure, these first few cold fronts will force the fish into a fattening up mode and the cooling weather will make fishing all-day comfortable.Typical fronts often make for windy conditions and off-shore trips are delayed, but between fronts try to get out to secret GPS locations and well known rock piles for some hot action on a great variety of fish, including red and gag grouper, porgies, grunts, ...

Fish are biting — get out on the water!

November 8, 2019

Still enjoying redfish and snook action throughout the area and during this unseasonably warm past month, we've caught both on about everything in the box and baitwell.As father would say, "Nothing lasts forever," so, get in on the action with the nice warm weather, and enjoy the uncrowded boat ramps. Both offshore and in a canal near you, the fish are biting.Experienced anglers know that redfish come in with the tide to hunt under the mangrove bush for small crabs and crustaceans that inhabit the shorelines. Ob-viously, when the tide falls out they retreat to drop-offs, channels and ...

Switching from bass buggin’ to saltwater fly fishin’

November 1, 2019

If you grew up bass fishing shallow mill ponds like I did, you probably had an uncle, friend or cousin who was really into top water bass bugging with a fly rod and at some point you may have caught the fly rod virus from one of them.Now, after a lifetime of enjoying the sport of freshwater fly fishing and lily pad and submerged tree "bass buggin'," you've made the big move to Southwest Florida, traded in the red metal flake Ranger and now find yourself standing on the casting deck of a shallow flats skiff looking at endless miles of salty mangrove shorelines and not a lily in sight.Do I ...

Red tide hasn’t been an issue for fishing – yet

October 25, 2019

With the lack of summer rains this year, we were spared another Lake O algae disaster but unfortunately we're now suffering from a late season attack of red tide from the Gulf, which will hopefully break up soon and be gone.On Thursday, Capt. J. Nottingham of D&D Tackle in Matlacha reported good fishing along the east wall of the lower harbor and no red tide sightings through upper Matlacha Pass.On charters this past week, my clients also caught reds and snook from the power lines in lower Matlacha Pass all the way to Burnt Store Bar on lures, flies and bait without any ...