A Pretty Good Day Fishing Behind A Cold Front
Capt. Butch Rickey
December 1, 2011
Estero Bay - Saltwater Fishing Report
Week Ending 11/05/11
Only one trip for this week, and it was on Friday, the 5th. My customer was Gene Osikowicz, of Chicago, Illinois. We were fishing the first day behind a cold front, and the wind forecast was for 20+ from the north, and I knew it would be a tough day to find a bite. Gene was up for the challenge, though, and I picked him up at Sanibel Harbor and headed to Lovers Key from there. We were in the water by 8 AM.
The breeze was up, and the north wind had the tide pushed way lower than it was supposed to be. I had to rethink our plans for the morning based on where the tide was. I thought under the circumstances it would be best to just try to find some fish that would bite, that could keep us busy until we got some water moving up onto the flats.
We stopped at a spot along the ICW where there is an underwater shelf that juts into the ICW, and has a deep spot on the north side of it. It usually has trout on it, and they were there this morning. The bite was pretty good, though there were few keepers, and Gene wore the fish out using a white suspending plug he'd brought along. We got lots of trout and ladyfish, and Gene also got two nice jack crevalle.
Finally, as the water began moving up on the flats in earnest, we made a move to a spot that always gives me good red fishing. The fish were there, alright, but not in much of an eating mood. We caught several reds in that area, and then a couple more later at another spot for a total of half a dozen reds. Most were caught on spoons.
All in all it had been a good day fishing behind a big cold front. Although the reds didn't bite well, we did get our keepers, and caught a lot of fish. We were glad we'd decided to take on the challenge.
Target Species:
Trout and redfish
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