Conditions: We will have extremely low morning tides this week. Water temps will be cool in the mornings but warm up in the afternoon. Pine Island Sound, Ding Darling, and areas around Sanibel and Captiva will have poor water quality due to the record level of discharges from Lake Okeechobee into the Caloosahatchee River. Even Matlacha Pass will see some water issues this week. The upper Harbor, East and West walls will provide better fishing opportunities.
Bait the fish are feeding on: Some whitebait in the upper harbor, pinfish, ladyfish, shrimp, crabs
Species to fish for this week: Snook, Redfish, Seatrout, Jacks, Ladyfish
Fishing Tactics: Typical winter tactics include taking advantage of extremely low water levels by fishing edges and structure. Cool water requires fishing slow and deep. As the water warms on the mud and grass you can speed your retrieves back up.
My fly fishing tip of the week: Slow presentations along the edges of oyster bards and banks with crab or shrimp patterns should produce this week. Use weighted flies or sinking intermediate lines to get down to the fish.     
My spin fishing tip of the week: Jig heads with soft plastic tail fished slow along edges and bars should work. Take advantage of this week’s super low tides by fishing structure and contours. 
7 day outlook: This week will be mostly dry with morning lows in the 50 warming into the 60s mid day. West – northwest winds will drop on Wednesday. There will be very large tide swings this week. Water temps will cool due to the nighttime lows. 

Barb and I will be heading to Port Charlotte in a week or two. Thought I'd start my fishing reports now seeing that I'm checking the conditions daily. 

Conditions: Water temps will rebound this week. Winds will drop too. There will be mid day low tides with good moving water

Bait the fish are feeding on: some whitebait in the upper harbor, pinfish, ladyfish, shrimp, crabs

Species to fish for this week: Seatrout, Redfish, Jacks, Spanish, some Snook

Fishing Tactics: Cold water tactics – fish deep water and banks until the mid day warmth heats up the flats.

My fly fishing tip of the week: Cold water requires fishing slow and deep. Might need to swap to an intermediate or sinking line. Maybe even weighted flies for the holes and edges.             

My spin fishing tip of the week: Still fishing with bait and popping corks or slow retrieved jigs in deep water early then move to the grass flats as the water warms.

7 day outlook: A cold front move out Monday and the winds will drop and shift into the southeast. The weather change will bring a few showers. Temps will rebound to seasonal levels allowing the water to warm up.

This week's forecast:

Charlotte Harbor / Pine Island Sound Fishing Report June1^st, 2015

Conditions: Water temps have dropped a couple degrees with the showers and afternoon sea breezes. The back country fishing remains a bit slow, especially mid day. The beaches will be very active with tarpon and some big snook. Lots of skipjacks, greenback and threadfin herring on the beach. Some crabs in the passes.

Bait: Threadfin herring, greenback herring, ladyfish, skipjacks, crab

Species to target this week: Tarpon, Snook, Redfish

Fishing Tactics: Tarpon are cruising the beach in good numbers. Watch for rolling fish early and then sub surface pods from late morning on. The bite has only been for 20-30 minutes each tide so be persistent.

My Fly Fishing Tip of the Week: Change flies after refusals and ignores. Crab and small streamers patterns are getting the most looks.

My Spin Fishing Tip of the Week: Crabs seem to be the most effective bait or lure right now. Use slow steady retrieves.

7 day outlook: Light easterly morning winds with an afternoon sea breeze will provide great morning fishing. Watch out for those afternoon thunderstorms. Beach tarpon and snook action will be good. Small snook and redfish will be feeding early and late in the day in the back country.

Sometimes Mother Nature throws you a big fat hanging curve. Sometimes she jambs you on the knuckles with a smoking fastball… John and Bill from CT got jammed on Monday. 20-25mph east winds with gusts over 35 at times. Our hopes of beach tarpon off Captiva and Sanibel Islands dashed, we headed for Pine Island and fished the back country of the Matlacha pass national wildlife refuge with John’s first saltwater fly fishing catch as a goal. Mission accomplished, John landed some snook on a whitebait pattern using an Orvis Helios2 9wt rod.  60' casts in 20+mph winds? - piece of cake. 5 hours of poling an 18' skiff in 20+ mph winds? not a piece of cake - thank you hot shower and Advil.

Chris From the Razzor Ranch in Zolfo Springs and his long time friend Mike had a great day of light tackle tarpon fishing off Captiva and Sanibel Islands. Perfect conditions and only three other skiffs in sight. We fished on pods of happy tarpon for two hours. By the way, the Razzor Ranch puts on a great hog hunt, I went there a couple weeks ago with my buddy Greg Straut and had an excellent time. 

Tarpon Prime Time is here, I have openings in May, airfair and rooms are now at off season rates! FMI go to the rates and resevation page

5/5 Best guide I've met - 4/9/2015By: gkilloug fished Matlacha, FL

"Dave Pecci is the kind of guide you'd want to fish with every day. Dave is a passionate (die hard) angler who works as hard as any guide I've seen to keep his clients on fish. He should be running clinics on boat control... He's also a great teacher, but he offers instruction in a patient and calm way, you almost don't realize he's coaching you until the casts get better, the presentations improve, and you start hammering fish. It doesn't hurt that he's a great story teller and also just an all-around good guy (and those pastries he brings...). I'll be fishing with Dave again the next time I'm in the area without a doubt. Can't wait!"

 5/5Look no further... - 3/25/2015 By: FlyByNite fished Pine Island/Matlacha, FL

"Capt. Dave is a joy to fish with. He uses top shelf fly fishing and spinning gear, is a wealth of local knowledge, and doesn't rely on two or three "honey holes" to provide action. He will work to keep your day on his boat action-packed. West coast Florida is filled with amazing, scenic back-country fishing and Capt. Dave is the guy to take you there." 

Conditions: Neap tides of the past week are now behind us. Good flow and water temps in the low 80s will produce great conditions. Watch out for those afternoon storms though.

Bait: threadfin herring, Green back Herring, pinfish, shrimp

Species to target this week: Snook, Redfish, Seatrout, Jack Crevalle, Ladyfish, Bluefish.

Fishing Tactics: Go early and blind cast the first hour or two of the incoming tide. Sight fishing will be good as soon as the sun gets overhead.

My Fly Fishing Tip of the Week: White bait patterns are working on snook. Be prepared for follows and refusals if the strip is not correct. You have to tease the big’uns into biting.

My Spin Fishing Tip of the Week: White and pink soft plastic twitch baits are producing snook. Root beer is the redfish color of the week.

7 day outlook: A lack of weather fronts in the 7 day forecast will provide a steady barometer and light winds. There are a few snook on the beach and some tarpon in Pine Island Sound. Lots of white bait around too.  Snook, trout and jacks are on the backcountry flats. 

Brad Osborn from Falmouth, Maine joined me this past weekend for some productive snook, trout, and jack crevalle action. We fished Pine Island Sound with both fly and spinning gear. Brad brought along one of his favorite New England "Albie" lures and the local fish ate it up! 

From Brad 04-14-15: Thanks Dave! As always, I had a great time. Snook, jacks, ladyfish, trout, thousands of cow nose rays, a manatee at the boat, sight casting to giant snook on the beach. It does not get better than that for a Mainer looking for a break from mud season.

LL Bean Hunt and Fish Dept. Senior Product Developer Jeff Miller and his 14 year old son Jason joined me for a fun filled Saturday morning fly fishing and light tackle spin fishing near Pine Island. We caught mangrove snapper, bar jack, bluefish, jack crevalle, seatrout and snook. Check out the porpoise attack in 18” of water when we released an eight pound jack!

Conditions: Warmer weather has allowed the water temps to rebound into the high 60s – low 70s. Low water levels exist especially during northerly winds. No red tide has been detected.

Bait: threadfin herring, pinfish, shrimp

Species to target this week: Redfish, Snook, Seatrout, Jacks, Ladyfish, Bluefish.

Fly Fishing Tactics: As the water temps get into the 70s the redfish and snook will move back into the shallows along the mangroves. Seatrout will be on the grass flats.

My Light Tackle Fishing Tip of the Week: Moving water is the key to finding snook and redfish. Deep holes at creek mouths will hold redfish. Mangrove points will hold snook.

7 Day Outlook: Morning fog early in the week. Some rain is predicted for Thursday and Friday. Light to moderate winds and temps in the mid 60s to mid 70s

Fishing Conditions: Summer weather finally! Light winds are allowing for great beach fishing. Most of the tarpon have been up in Charlotte Harbor feeding on crabs and whitebait. The beaches have had good action as well. Water temps are in the mid 80s

Other Species Fished for This Week: Snook and Redfish

Fly Fishing Technics: This week we staged along the beaches of Gasparilla and Captiva. Both crab and baitfish flies were working.

 Tarpon Light Tackle Fishing Tip of the Week: Heavy boat traffic and fishing pressure will cause tarpon to move to deeper water.

Tarpon Fly Fishing Tip of the Week: Change flies after every refusal. Alternate between baitfish and crab / shrimp imitations.

Charlotte Harbor Fishing Outlook: Next week should provide great fishing action. The tarpon will move off the Hill and onto the beaches.

Today we fly fished the waters of upper Pine Island Sound and Captiva Island for snook, redfish and seatrout. A passing cold front and neap tides made for a less than perfect bite. but we prevailed and bent the rods on trout and jacks. Not very often you'll see me wearing two shirts and long paints in late April! We'll be back to typical weather and fishing conditions for the rest of the week.