Fishing: Weather brings changes

In the backwaters, tarpon will become scarce, snook smaller, and pompano, sheepshead, drum and trout more prevalent. Offshore, the red grouper will move out. The gag grouper will move in, and king mackerel, bonito and cobia will become the fish of choice.

The king mackerel are already here. Big kings can be targeted on the wrecks, and schools of smaller fish are beginning to work the bait from the beaches out to five miles. Over the next four weeks, the kingfish schools will grow and grow to the point where many anglers will simply tire of fishing them.

A few years ago, there was a fish house in town where I used to bring my king mackerel, and they would smoke it for me and take half the fish as payment. By the third week in November, they had so much mackerel that they would make the same deal, but charge me a dollar a pound for my fish.

When I came back the first week in December, they took their half and then charged me more for my fish than the kingfish that they were selling in the case.

"How can this be?" I complained. "I catch the fish, give you half, and you charge me more for my fish than you would if I walked in off the street!"

"Your fish is fresher." I was told, and, being a fisherman, this explanation made perfect sense to me.

NAPLES -- Capt. Allen Walburn of A and B charters reports that the grouper fishing remains very good, but he is catching less red grouper and more gag grouper. Snapper fishing is also strong, and several boats have also been bringing in dolphin. Schools of small dolphin in the four to six pound range have been homing under the boats in the 30 mile range.

King mackerel are being caught over the wrecks and their smaller Spanish cousins can be targeted all along the beaches. Some cobia are also being caught, but it may take one more cold front to push the big cobia into our area.

Walburn fished on Tuesday, and his party returned to the dock with ten legal grouper (four reds and six gags) and two dozen mangrove snapper including a monster nine pound, 27-inch fish. The snapper was, in fact, larger than any of the grouper that were caught.

MARCO ISLAND -- Capt. Andrew Bostick says that it has been a week of fantastic action but not many trophies. Small snook are everywhere, but there are very few keepers.

Bluefish and mackerel are schooled all along the beaches, and there are kingfish and bonito about a mile from the shore.

Jacks, ladyfish and a few redfish all add to catch.

Bostick fished on Tuesday with Frank Ciminelli and Byron Farrell, and they landed 43 snook on fly, but none of the fish were over the 26-inch minimum.

Bostick and his team mate, Mark Miller, have been fishing the Ranger Redfish Tour in Florida and Louisiana for the past few months, and they were recently awarded the "Team of the year" honors for accumulating the most points out of 125 professional anglers. Bostick and Miller represent Team Maverick.

EVERGLADES CITY -- Capt. Mike Merritt was forced to stay in the back bays this week because of the strong winds on the outside, but he said that he caught quite a few snook and some undersized redfish. Merritt also worked the back creeks and boated juvenile tarpon up to 10 pounds and goliath grouper to 50 pounds.

There were also numerous jacks and ladyfish.

Merritt says that if you can get to the outside, there are mackerel all along the edges of the islands. The mackerel are skyrocketing out of the schools of bait and can be caught on both live baits and spoons.

Merritt fished with Billy Himmelrich, and Himmelrich landed 20 snook on fly and added another 25 fish on live bait.

Most of the snook were small but one fish measured over 33 inches. They also caught some small redfish on the outside points when the tide was rising.

WIGGINS PASS -- Capt. John Vest of Fishtrap Marina has been finding good action from Estero Bay all the way to Wiggins Pass. Mackerel can be caught along the beaches and in the passes. Snook and redfish are being taken from the mangrove banks on both sides of Estero Bay, and juvenile tarpon can be seen rolling in the back bays and rivers. Most of the tarpon are in deepwater areas where the depth is more than eight feet.

When the winds are not blowing, king mackerel, cobia, and mangrove snapper can all be found out at the May Reef or any other structure areas inside of five miles.