Fresh Bokeelia Fishing Reports

The weather is cooling down but the fishing is heating up, and it’s getting to be some of the finest fishing of the year. We are finding large schools of redfish, big hungry snook, larger slot sized trout and to top it off the sheepshead are moving inshore for the winter months. We are starting to transition over to fishing shrimp but still catching nice white bait for the big predators to eat. It’s a great time to get out and fight some fish, the winds have held us up from going offshore much but the inshore bite is just as good and the results speak for themselves.

The Fall fishing is getting very good, trout, redfish, snook and much more are feeding and giving us more fun than you can imagine. Lower water temperatures, bigger bait, nice weather, it doesn’t get much better than our falls on the flats. Red October as we call it is starting to shape up nicely, redfish are starting to school up in big numbers to spawn, you can find these schools with hundreds of hungry fish and it is the most exciting and unreal sights to see. Trout are all over the flats as well, we’ve been putting over 100 fish in the boat, many trout are just below slot size but we are finding plenty of legal fish mixed in with the trout are numbers of small gag grouper and on occasion big Spanish mackerel schools will pass through. The fishing is super fun right now, it’s hard not to make awesome memories out on the water in the fall.

Spent the last few days prepping and fishing the LCEC Tournament benefiting The United Way of Southwest Florida. We had a great day targeting Redfish, Snook, Trout and our mystery fish selection, my personal favorite… catfish (all the sarcasm). We had a very solid start to the day getting to the flats for redfish half an hour before tournament start and sat it out until 7 am. Seconds before start I took two ladyfish out of the dozen we caught the day before, chunked them up into half inch wide pieces and threw them out for chum then a piece with a hook went out. Within 3 minutes of the tournament we hooked up to our first and biggest red at 28.5 inches. We proceeded to hook and land 4 more none of which beat out our first fish. Left from there and caught our bait for the day. While we caught bait my group fished trout and proceeded to catch our big trout at 18.5 inches. Once we caught bait and our trout we just needed a snook for our slam and that was a bit tougher than our first couple fish. It took us a while to finally get a snook, and it was not the fish to thrust us in the top 5, however we finished the day at 9th respectively out of 50 boats. A top ten finish amongst some of the best teams in SWFL is something to be proud of and my group from Pike Electric did an excellent job and fished hard.

It’s one of the best times of the year on the water, and it’s starting off really great. Starting to find large schools of big bulky redfish and cooler water temps making the fishing even better than it’s been. Bait fish are starting to get bigger and more plentiful, pinfish are the go to for these big reds. Not only that the huge green backs we love to find are showing up in large numbers. We like to use them for the juvenile tarpon and big snook. Starting to fish the little tarpon and boy are they fun. The fight from these fish are second to none with the unbelievable acrobatics they perform when hooked up. The fall fishing is some of the best, plenty of trout on the flats, we are catching many smaller trout but more than enough slot fish mixed in. This fall fishing is so fun, every species imaginable to target once these water temps cool down and bait gets better.

The bite remains hot but so is the water temps, we are experiencing some of the warmest water I have seen in 30 years fishing Southwest Florida. Through it all the fishing is phenomenal, mangrove snapper limits every trip and plenty of redfish and trout to go around. Snook are hanging around as well as they spend their time on the beaches and passes during their spawn. As fall approaches we will start to see those snook move back in to the mangrove islands and begin seeing huge numbers of redfish as they begin their spawn. I say all of this to emphasize the fishing will only get better and better. Baitfish are still small but the pinfish and cut ladyfish have given us opportunities to get big fish to eat. We need cooler temps to ensure water quality improves and the fish do not get too stressed but until then we will keep catching them up.

We are having a lot of fun out there in the big schools of redfish, these fish are hungry and are most likely beefing up for the upcoming spawn. Redfish begin their spawning season in the fall and right now they are beginning to clump together in their schools they will likely ride out the spawn with. It has been a fisherman’s dream on the flats, the particular school we have fished are the same ones I have come back to for the last two weeks giving us a bit of an unfair advantage. The fish vary in size from lower slot (20 inch) to some of the bulls with our biggest one tipping the scale at 34 inches, a true beast. The fish are so plentiful we have been able to camp out on the school and fish them for two hours or longer catching one after another. Their bait of choice lately has been pinfish or cut lady fish chunks. Aside from the redfish we have been catching a good number of mangrove snapper, bottom fishing, pitching mangrove lines, docks, you name it they are there. These fish have made their grand return to the inshore waters and they are hungry. To catch these wise fish we lower our leader size to around 20 lbs, smaller hook and they have been happy eating the greenbacks we have been netting. It’s the most fun you’ll have on the water right now and should only get better leading into fall given we have good conditions and clean water.