Trout Bite Excellent Near Fort Myers Beach

Winter weather descended on the Fort Myers area this past week and made it feel like we were living in the north and not the south. Water temperatures were pushed down into the upper 50's but as of this writing there were no fish kill reports. There's a nice warm up forecast for this weekend so things should improve rapidly. Just before the major cold weather set in the trout bite was off the charts. They were in the deeper holes in the backcountry of Estero Bay and on the rock piles and nearshore reefs of the Gulf in about 18 feet of water. The sheepshead bite was also good but the spawn hasn't started yet so most of them were undersized. On an unusual note, the flounder bite has been really good for our area over the past couple of months. Normally we see about one a week, but there has been one or two caught on almost every recent trip. Live shrimp on a jig fished slowly across sandy bottom seems to work best. The gag grouper are making their move in the near shore waters and now is a good time to target them with cut bait or shrimp on the bottom. You can also have a great deal of success trolling large lip baits near the same areas. The grouper season closes on January 1st so you better get it done soon.