6 June 2017 IT'S HOT!
Capt. Jim Conant
June 6, 2017
Matlacha - Saltwater Fishing Report
6 June 2017
IT'S HOT!
How do you fish when the water is 93 degrees in the middle of the day? Easy, fish early or late. But if you absolutely must fish in the heat you need a couple things. Water movement, cover and depth close by. The last couple of trips I've had was with a client turned good friend. He has been making me go out and put my fishing reports to the test by fishing waters I don't unusually fish and at times I wouldn't normally be down that way. And I am not going to show a local my go to holes when I have clients on board that don't own a boat or know their way around. So, while we are out we use the exact same baits I've talked about in previous reports, cut bait and live bait. Cut mullet or lady fish if we had it and live greenies or pinfish or even cut pins.
So there we are first of two trips, no moving water, bait was hard to find and water temp creeping into the high 80'S and low 90's. We fished several spots that looked extremely promising and we knew we would probably see reds in this area if we had moving water. This was the theme for that day. As we moved from these promising areas I would occasionally spot nice reds out a ways from said locations. That was the first outing, lessons learned from that trip, adjust for the tide movement when you can, and scout, scout and scout some more. The next trip the following week we decided to hit the passes for snook. This deemed to be too easy and he already knew the places we were going and how to fish them. We caught about a dozen snook and decided to try the flats since he hadn't learned to fish the flats and see the signs I look for when doing so. Water temp 91, incoming tide but very slow and then came in all at once, grass flats with oysters bars around 10" to 1' of water. Sneaking up onto the flats I was seeing signs of mullet, sharks and a few reds. At the beginning my client was seeing all that I was seeing as to the different waves on the water. After about 20-30 minutes of looky-there's he got it and started pointing fish out. We saw reds as we pushed along but it wasn't them feeding in the hot water, the boils they made were when they got spooked by mullet or shark or us. The water was just too warm and the tide wasn't right for them to feed. Now from my point of view after seeing this did the fish change their pattern and want to feed on the outgoing tides. Which would be into the evening and a cooler part of the day.
As a guide I am moving all around the waters from Punta Gorda, Boca Grande, Matlacha, Pine Island sound, Captiva's down to the mouth of the river. Different times of the day, month, or season I fluctuate where I fish more often and for what species therefore I have a pretty good knowledge of where the fish may be that I am targeting. There is no way a person can fish an area proficiently and cover it all in one day. That's why there are good days and bad days. What you learn one day from not catching you know the conditions what made that area a bad day and what conditions should make that area a good day. I don't buzz the shorelines like a lot of boat owners looking for fish. 1. This isn't good for the environment, 2. It pushes fish off of where they would normally like to be and 3. More than likely you just ruined the fishing there for quite a while. Keep a record of what you learned on a calendar and when the conditions are right head back out there. Good days and bad record these things: Water temp, water clarity, your position, wind direction and speed, air temp, moon phase and are you fishing in front or behind a front with a window of 3 days. I do have specific areas I fish on a given wind direction day, some may be to hide from the wind and produce fish others are to be in the wind to produce fish. When you put these techniques to play you will get better at fishing your targeted species and not need to have someone to tell you where the fish are to be a good fisherman. Although good tips never hurts from a friend. I was using an App on my phone for 3 ½ years and had excellent record keeping I could glance at it and know where I would want to start fishing. That ended when I walked off a dock last year with my phone in pocket and defective waterproof case. To top that off the App didn't have a way to back up the data on the cloud or anywhere. All that data flushed away.
I am running a campaign for a FREE FULL DAY FISHING CHARTER of my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/jimbocharters/ to get as many likes on my page as possible. So like Jimbos charters Facebook page and share the win a free fishing trip post with your friends and their friends and you could win a trip for four all day trip.
Tight lines
Check out and like my Facebook https://www.facebook.com/jimbocharters/ and Instagram #jimboscharters page for recent pictures and trips. If you're ready to go fishing give me a call to plan your trip so we can try and catch the tides right. If you're a Veteran with proof I have the best prices around and I guarantee it. I'm also on Facebook at Jimbo's Charters where I post pictures if my clients let me and my website www.Jimboscharters.com
Captain Jim
239-671-4692
Matlacha Fishing Forecast:
Fish early or late too get out of the boiling water temps.
Target Species:
Tarpon, Red fish, Cobia, Trout, Snook, snapper
More Fishing Reports:
