I hope everyone is out there taking advantage of this beautiful weather, I sure have been. This is what makes winter in Florida so great. Perfect dry mid 60s to low 70s air temperature and bright bluebird skies, it's hard to beat. Fishing has been equally as good. The water temps are back up from our previous cold snap. Water temps are in the low to mid 60s consistently now and I have even seen a few temperatures late in the day that have been as high as 69 degrees. These are perfect water temps for my winter time redfish patterns. I particularly like water between 58 and 64 degrees, it makes the fish easy to locate by concentrating them into warmer water holes and is still warm enough to keep their metabolisms high. The past couple of weeks have paid off for us real well. The Redfish have been very consistent. We have been catching lots of them and some real nice ones too. On some of the better days we have been putting over 30 a day in the boat up to 30 inches with lots in the keeper slot of 18 to 27 inches. The nice thing about running my winter time redfish pattern is that we get a lot of varieties mixed in which is great for keeping the action fast, something is always tugging at you line. Nice Sheepshead up to 5 pounds and plenty of Black Drum up to 25 inches, and even a few Flounder have been feeding amongst the Redfish.
Trout fishing has been equally as good. As soon as one of my schools of Redfish slow down a bit we head for the Trout or for another school of Redfish. The Trout have been very consistent and some of the bites are literally as fast as you can reel them in. Some of the Trout are real nice ones too. The Trout outlook for this year is pretty favorable. There are plenty of trout out there that are 20 plus inches and tons of nice keepers in that 15 to 20 inch class.
The back water fishing as a whole has been really good lately, my charters have been easily burning through 15 dozen shrimp on a full day charter and there aren't many bait stores selling Pin fish right now.
The offshore fishing has been quite good as well. There are lots of Grouper in the bay still, so it's nice not having to run real far to find them. There are also a pile of fish in 100 ft of water, lots of Gags, Reds and Amber Jack action for those willing to make the run. Kingfish are showing up off Fort Myers in massive schools, so it shouldn't be too long before we are catching some ourselves.
I think we may have a little cold snap coming up the end of the week which should concentrate the fish and making for good fishing, especially before the front arrives. I have some available days to get out there and enjoy some good Florida winter fishing, so let me know if you would like to get out. Also my spring and tarpon schedule is filling quickly so it's time to start making your plans.
Well I hope you have enjoyed my report, catch you on the water.
Capt. Matt Ercoli
800-521-2872 cell- 941-447-9888
www.captainmatt.com www.tarponfish.com
