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Southwest Florida - Naples, Marco, 10,000 Islands
Capt. Jeff Legutki
January 31, 2008
Ten Thousand Islands - Saltwater Fishing Report
A day to remember!
Had a day off Wednesday, so I called a friend to go out and fish Naples for a couple hours. The fishing has been hot and cold for me the last couple weeks. This time of year with cold fronts and windy days are the norm with one or two days in between of good calm clear conditions. Well, Wednesday was one of those days.
Dropped my daughter off at the bus stop and got down to the ramp at around 8:00am. Ran to the first spot to find crystal clear water in a nice protected lee. The bottom was white sand with grassy patches everywhere. As soon as I hoped up on the platform I could see a nice red laying in between the grass. My buddies first cast with a hand tied jig gets hammered and the first red of the day comes aboard. Release the fish after we take his picture and see a school of about 30 reds coming at us a hundred feet away. Now I have lived in Naples my whole life and rarely see this anymore. Completely overwhelmed by the beauty of about 30 reds slowly sliding through that gin clear water was a sight to see. We both lead the school by 20 feet and let the jigs just sit on the bottom until they were on top of jigs. A couple twitches and we both hooked up to over slot reds, not 20 minutes on the water and the tally is 3 reds, one 25", 28", and 30".
The day continued on like this, one here, one there, and a couple snook to through in. Days end total was 7 red fish, 3 snook, and several spotted sea trout to finish the slam. All fish were sightfished with custom hand tied jigs.
Its days like these that keep fisherman like all of us coming back for more. You always compete against the weather and elements continually changing conditions, never being the same, making it a constant challenge. I think thats why alot of us enjoy it so much.
Aside from red fish and snook, trout are in the holes and troughs over sand and grass. Pompano are close to beaches over hard bottom and black drum are just about everywhere willing to take a shrimp off the bottom. And the sheephead are so abundant right now the old timers must be loving it, as well as some big fish up to 6-7 pounds.
Pick your day to go out fishing and you could score one of the greatest days of your fishing life. 2 days after front passes the fish go crazy and feed after they acclimate to conditions. No matter what type of fishing you are looking for, sight fishing, jig fishing, or just drowning shrimp on the bottom you should find some action.
So until my next report, tight lines and screaming drags to all!
Capt. Jeff
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