Ft Myers to Sarasota Fishing Report

Most of my fishing the past month or two has focused on flats fishing in Pine Island Sound and Charlotte Harbor. The fishing has been a bit different than last year. The water is much cooler and I've had to rely on a deep water pattern much earlier than I'm used to. I have found good speckled trout numbers in the deeper creeks from Matlacha pass to eastern Sanibel island. Pine Island Sound fishing has been marginal at best with some nice trout in the potholes but not enough numbers to keep my interest. I made a few fishing trips up to Sarasota Bay and the trout fishing was on fire. Once we found the fish it was constent action with hard jerk baits and soft plastics. The fish were all mid to over slot fish also. Redfish were caught in Sarasota as well with most of the fish averaging over 5 pounds with a few much bigger. Redfish in Charlotte Harbor have been tougher to find but they are eating when you got on them. Average size has been low to mid slot for the Charlotte Harbor reds. Snook and big jacks are roaming up the rivers and have been hitting well after the cold fronts. We've been fishing smaller crank baits for the jacks that are running 10-20 lbs. Snook from 5 to 25 pounds are sometime caught at the same time but the odds are increased if some live bait can be found. Three to five pound Bluefish and smaller jacks are in the lagoons that line Pine Island and they have been the trip savers lately when you have to get some drag burning.