Pine Island Sound, Charlotte Harbor & Matlacha Pass

Well their's only one thing to say about the fishing right now and that is it's hot.With the warming of the water temp's to over 70 degrees the snook fishing has exploded.On the 23rd we landed a 35" snook,281/2"snook,and a 24"snook.We then proceeded to catch 7 trout on the flyrod.The bait has come in to the bays full force now.With the arrival of the greenbacks it starts off the spring fishing. On the 24th I headed out to Captiva and set up on this one spot and managed to get 12 snook.Most of these snook were on the small side to 24".On light tackle they are a blast to catch.On this same spot we pulled one redfish of 24" half dozen trout and one flounder. On the 25th I picked up my clients at Sanibel harbour resort.We headed out to Captiva island and set up on this one spot.The tide was extremely low but it was coming in. The fish were slow to bite as we only could connect with a jack of 2lbs and one small snook of 20".So we moved to a spot to catch some trout while we waited for the tide to rise.After catching 15 trout.We headed back to Captiva and tried it again.The fish had lock jaw as we managed only one small snook of 22".The snook were at this spot but just were not turned on. On the 26th I switched locations to Matlacha to accomadate my clients.This trip was with a father and his daughter of 7 years old and his son of 12.I decided to go over into the Pine Island Sound and do some trout fishing.We got there the tide was coming in and the place was alive with birds and fish life.As we pulled up into some very shallow water of 1ft we began a drift.The daughter for 7 years old fished like she had been doing it for years.She managed to catch 5 nice keepers from 16" to 20"long.The son managed to get 8 nice trout from 16" to 22"long.They would wind up keeping a 3 man limit of nice trout.The father got his pants beat off by his kids managing to get only one of the 12 keepers that they caught.They all had a wonderful time as the weather was chamber of commerce weather on Saturday. For any of you interested in tarpon I have been spotting tarpon on the flats while fishing for trout.I have been hearing of some fish being caught by other anglers.I haven't had a chance to go and fish for them this season.Maybe this week I will get a chance to go if the back bay trips slow down.The tarpon are getting ready to go into high gear within the next week or so.If interested in a tarpon trip please book in advance as these trips fill in a hurry.Well that does it for this week.See ya on the water.