Home » Features » Fish Finder » October 14 fishing report from Byron Stout
Hurricane Ian produced a mess for Southwest Florida anglers. That actually includes a few messes of fish, but the down side to the storm will produce pain for months, and likely years.
– EMAIL YOUR PICS TO BYRON STOUT
OFFSHORE: A&B Charters out of Port ‘O Call Marina in Naples have barely missed a tick, with one family trip “right after the storm” producing a limit of yellowtail and mangrove snappers to 7 pounds, according to Capt. Allen Walburn. Veteran Capt. Jim Rinckey also reports great snapper fishing, with a much improved bite in turbid waters out to depths of 55 feet. He has been targeting natural limestone ledges, using ground chum to fire up the bite, and baiting with live shrimp and cut squid. Some large but out-of-season red grouper also have been released.
Mike Westra of Lehr’s Economy Tackle got a hearsay report of two commercial fishermen who made a trip to unknown depths and “absolutely murdered” the fish, mainly snapper. The catches were said to be of larger than normal fish, in addition to the greater numbers.
ESTERO BAY: Get Hooked Charter Capt. Matt DeAngelis reports a grim view of the waters behind lethally damaged Fort Myers Beach and Bonita Beach. “Fishing is at a standstill due to the amount of boat and vehicle wreckage, storm debris and garbage in the water. Navigating should only be done with extreme caution, by an expert.”
On the up side, “I do see snook and juvenile tarpon crashing baits in (Bonita Springs’) Imperial River. So life does exist in the waters.”
CALOOSAHATCHEE RIVER: Mark Westra hasn’t been getting a lot of feedback from customers who have been much busier getting back to some kind of normality than fishing. But even before reopening Lehr’s, one young customer and his mother, of Cape Coral’s Hancock family, reported a crazy day of paddleboarding in their canal with direct river access. Master Hancock was the only one fishing, much to his angling mom’s regret, while viewing the action. On cast after cast over a two-hour span with No Live Bait Needed and D.O.A. soft plastic baits, the young man hooked “at least 20” tarpon estimated at 10 to 25 pounds.
Westra also was regaled by two anglers who had been running supplies to a friend in St. James City when they encountered fish pushing wakes in the river shallows near Tarpon Point Marina. The wakes, they said, were being made by dozens of redfish.
Other conversations with two different commercial crabbers revealed a better run of blue crabs than ever in recent memory. And they also reported redfish “everywhere” among their hundreds of crab traps.
Not only crabs, but schools of baitfish “by the billions” have been observed by Westra’s brother, Flat Top Charters Capt. Mark Westra, who reported the bait being crashed by predators including snook and tarpon.
PINE ISLAND: Wildfly Charters Capt. Gregg McKee said he has not been fishing, but he has spent a lot of time ferrying people to bridgeless Matlacha and Pine Island. “I know for a fact that there is still a ton of life on the flats, and some very hungry fish, but right now I’m still in clean-up mode.”
Waters right around the canal communities have been rife with hurricane strewn hazards. North of Matlacha, however, he has observed lots of big, broken mangroves on the Indian Field flats, but not that much debris of manmade origin. One hour spent on his flats skiff in a Matlacha canal with a friend produced six bags of floating foam chunks fished out with a pitchfork. “If everyone out there with a small boat would do this, then our shorelines could look a lot better in a few weeks.”
CHARLOTTE HARBOR: The nine vessel King Fisher fleet of inshore and offshore fishing and tour boats has been grounded by a Coast Guard directive forbidding commercial boat operation in Charlotte Harbor, with no end of the order given.
King Fisher Capt. Ralph Allen’s hurricane experience dates to well before 2004, when Cat-4 Hurricane Charley roared up Charlotte Harbor. Though smaller in size than Ian, Charley was impressively more destructive to the harbor’s mangroves, in Capt. Allen’s memory. He remembers the harbor’s mangrove walls totally devoid of green leaves after Charley, which outright killed mature stands of trees to 20-feet-tall. Ian, for reasons unknown, has left behind some green, and hope for less lethal destruction.
Allen lives on Punta Gorda’s city reservoir, upstream of the Shell Creek Dam, and spent a day not long after the storm casting for whatever would bite, which was nothing. More alarming were the floating carcasses of fish, mostly bass, that he thought must have been killed as a direct result of the storm, judging by their bloated condition. He recalled Charley’s devastation along the Peace River called a massive fish kill, as storm driven vegetation rotted and caused oxygen depletion.
LAKE TRAFFORD: Business at Lake Trafford Marina has been slow, but the tackle shop is open and well stocked with bait, when anglers return. South Bend Charters Capt. Cody McClelland and his dad, Robert, combined for 40 nice crappie on Oct. 6, so the 1,500 acre lake’s specks also are standing by. Ditto for the boat ramp and fishing pier at Ann Olesky Park, at the terminus of Lake Trafford Road in Immokalee.
LAKE OKEECHOBEE: Lake Okeechobee already has hosted post-Ian fishing tournaments, including last weekend’s 20-team Operation Bass Warrior event for veterans. Roland Martin Marina & Resort Capt. Jose Betancourt guided the team of Okeechobee anglers Tina and Steve Lynn, and their two service dogs, Tiny and Faith, to a second place finish, despite fishing conditions that were “a little tough, with the quick rise of the lake.”
The high water (14.79 feet above sea level as of 10/13) allows for navigation “pretty much anywhere you want,” including access to Moonshine Bay and inside Cochran’s Pass, in the west side marsh, and the Bay Bottom area at the south end. The Lynns had a good day fishing wild shiners on Observation Shoal, “as far back in as you could go.”
Besides shiners, Capt. Betancourt reports swim baits and speed worms working well in the grass, with Senkos and flukes good around hydrilla and eelgrass patches in the back waters.
Tina Lynn and her husband were one of 20 happy Operation Bass Warrior teams in last weekend’s tournament on Lake Okeechobee.
The few recent offshore fishing reports indicate the snapper bite has been on fire, which wasn’t unexpected. Snappers including mangroves and yellowtails are known as exceptionally “leader shy” fish, meaning they often regard baited hooks as too fishy to mess with. Happily, they tend to abandon caution when murky waters reduce visibility, even more so at night. Chumming with ground menhaden helps fire up the bite around offshore structure including artificial reefs and limestone ledges, and it doesn’t hurt to minimize terminal tackle with small hooks, the lightest possible weight, and hard-to-see fluorocarbon leaders (or no leader at all when using 20-pound or lighter monofilament line).
Copyright © 2022 Waterman Broadcasting of Florida, LLC
Copyright © 2022 Waterman Broadcasting of Florida, LLC