Pine Island Sound, Charlotte Harbor & Matlacha Pass

Capt. Glenn Grimes
January 26, 2005
Fort Myers - Saltwater Fishing Report

It was chilly as my good friend Capt Bob Winger and I launched my 21 ft. SeaPro at the ramp in Matlacha. As we went down the canal to the entrance to Matlacha pass we rigged our poles with jig heads that were bare. We hit the pass and I pointed the bow towards Charlotte Harbor.

We set up on a creek that leads into Buzzard bay. We pulled out the select shrimp and Cajun Thunder popping corks cast to the mangroves and was rewarded with a small snook of about 18". As I was pulling the snook off Capt Bob hooks into a rat red of 16". We caught 4 more snook and 10 reds all together at this particular spot.

The reds were carbon copies of each other at 16".The reds were small but a lot of fun on the light tackle we were using. After about an hour the bite stopped. As we were moving to another spot we spotted a nice school of nice snook but were unsuccessful in getting one on the hook.

We moved further up in Buzzard bay to another deep hole. As we dropped anchor I grabbed a shrimp and switched to a free line. Casting to a eddy in the hole resulted in a nice strike but missed. On the next cast I caught an 18" seatrout which was put on ice for later. Capt Bob caught a nice little snook of 22" on the jig head and a live shrimp which was quickly released.

For a little over an hour we caught small snook and small reds to 20" and 3 more trout. The sun was starting to get low so we decided to move to the open flats near the east bar. We caught some 20 more seatrout although most were only 14' to 15". Well that about wraps it up for this week.

See ya on the water.

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