Overall Area: Water temperature at the Venice pier was reported to be 72 degrees a couple of days ago and further south down on the pier of Naples, a whopping 82 degrees of bathtub water, Wow! That is excessively warm for February as the vacationers were enjoying the swimming and the snook and tarpon were revved up for a good meal. Good numbers of snook, tarpon and redfish were caught in all areas from Lemon Bay to the Myakka River, and many of the fish were large ones. It seems to be a week of April fishing only it is February. Schoolie Kings are ever so present as well, Caleb while angling the mid-section of the pier this week picked up a slender but nice six foot Blacktip Shark at around 129 pounds, give or take a tenth of a pound. Ladies, Bluefish, Mackerels and bait pods to walk on mixed with just too many birds. If you see a tourist feeding them, please tell them to stop, it’s a death sentence for a tangled bird but a hefty citation for the person on the feeding side.
Our warm-weather fishery is coming to a screeching halt as our recent cold blast of a winter cold front moved through on Tuesday night, and the temperature on Thursday and Friday morning is predicted to be in the lower 40s or even upper 30s, as was the case here in North Port.
This front will undoubtedly slow the bite for a few days, but the real worry is the possibility of a fish kill. Snook and even tarpon cannot tolerate plummeting cold water; they cannot stand drastic changes to which such a drop can cause massive fish kills. This has been one of the warmest winters I can remember and back in December this was mirrored and there was a severe fish kill when the water dropped 20 degrees in two days. Dead snook, tarpon and goliath grouper littered the waters throughout our coastlines. We can only hope that this fast moving low pressure too will not have a devastating effect.
Boca Grande: Capt. Rob has been enjoying plenty of kingfish mixed with Spanish, Cobia and sharks while kiting behind his vessel trolling live baits for the kingfish. He said that the kings are on the bite and have been caught in a various of methods but by trolling live baits skipping under a kite, the anglers can see the kingfish come to the surface and take the bait; what a thrilling moment to see a sky-rocketing king enucleate a bait. He has also been chumming and catching Cobia and medium sharks, while on the look out for rolling Silver Kings.
Back up in the harbor and along the rocks, a steady supply of snook and redfish with big jacks mixed in are the mixed bag of the day. Some of these fish have been large ones for this time of year, including several slot size snook and monster Bull redfish. Drop offs to ledges and cheese holes are producing great snook hook-ups.
Lemon Bay and North up the Ditch: Reports that the fishing has been great prior to the approaching cold snap. Snook to Reds, mixed with nice Trout caught on D.O.A. and Reds on my Red on white Upside Down Cake produced some tail dancing top water action.
Venice Ditch, The Alley north and our Inlet: Fishing close out of the Venice Inlet bonito, cobia, snook, and heads seemed to enjoy the out flowing tides mixed with small shark and mangroves. Report of a 50-pound tarpon inside the inlet at Snake Island have not been substantiated but sounds hopeful, considering the eight foot Hammer caught last week on the pier at Sharky’s.
Further north around New Pass: Capt. Dave Hanson fished in 40 feet of water with David Unger, Tony Pastori, Jim Sistek and Bob Wilson, and they caught 14 mangrove snapper to 17 inches, sheepshead to 18 inches, five hogfish to 15 inches, Spanish mackerel, triggerfish and porgies. They also caught and released a pair of 24-inch gag grouper and a 21-inch red grouper that were out of season, as reported from a news report.
Freshwater to the Brackish Back waters: The freshwater fishing has been good, although with the warm weather, there are more snook being caught than bass, in the brackish waters of the rivers and inlets. The largest bass have moved up onto their beds, and some have already spawned and are feeding in the holes near the beds, but all this could change with this week’s cold front, time will tell.
It will be windy and much cooler on Thursday and Friday, and even though it will warm up quickly, the change in temperature will certainly shut down the snook fishing temporarily. The bass are less susceptible to the cooler temperatures, but they too will likely be affected, especially since the Myakka and its subsidiaries are so shallow because of the drought, and there will fewer deep areas for the fish to hide with the exception of them gator holes. In all, hopefully by Sunday the bite will be back on.
“FISH ON!”
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