Charlotte Harbor Fishing Report February 24, 2020


Fishing Conditions: Pretty good conditions this week. Water quality and clarity will be excellent throughout Pine Island Sound and Gasparilla. Lots of moving water and falling tides will keep the active all morning.

My tips of the week: With dropping tides the fish will be coming out of the mangroves and cruising the sand and grass inside the bars.

Capt. Dave Pecci 2/24/20
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Help Loading the Boat

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It's always nice having help loading up after a charter. These pictures were taken at the Placida Park boat ramp near the Boca Grande Causeway.

A snowy egret on the poling platform ans a great egret standing by on the dock made sure all those pesky shrimp were gone from the livewell.

2016-03-10gtegret

Spring fishing has arrived in Charlotte Harbor. The snook are moving on the sand flats, spotted sea trout are on the grass beds. The water temps are rising. The water clarity has improved greatly.  

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Dick Perry Enjoys some Turtle Bay Trout and Ladyfish Action

02-16-16Perry1Dick Perry From Troy Michigan joined me for a 4 hour back country fishing trip in Bull and Turtle Bay on Tuesday. It had rained over an inch before sunrise and we had a neap tide. Not exactly perfect fishing conditions. Gasparilla Sound was muddy as we left the Placida boat ramp. Thankfully the conditions in Turtle Bay were better. It was a little iced tea colored which typical when it rains but definable fishable. After spending an hour or so trying for some snook we changed gears and worked some deep grassy spots. We were fishing 3/8oz jigs with soft plastic tails and kept getting short strikes. We went to shorter tails and had better luck but still were missing most of strikes - even the ladyfish strikes... It was a morning of typical non aggressive fish due to the neap tide.02-16-16Perry-trout3 
So what do you do in a situation like this? Take the soft plastic tail off the jig and replace it with a live shrimp tail. Wallah, no more short strikes.
Morel of the story: Never leave the dock without live bait on the days the tide isn't moving.

 

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SW Florida - Pine Island, Boca Grande, Charlotte Harbor Fishing Report February 15, 2016

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Conditions: Water temps are in the mid to high 60s and will warm as the week progresses. Lots of fresh water runoff in the lower Harbor and Pine Island Sound right now. Better conditions exist in the upper Charlotte Harbor, the West wall and over toward Placida.

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: Mobility is the key right now. There’s lots of good fishing where you find clear water. You may have to run a bit to get away from the stained fresh water but when you do the fish will waiting for you.

My fly fishing tip of the week: Use bright colored bulky flies in stained water and natural colored smaller flies in the clear water. Strip slowly in the mornings, speed up as the water warms up.

My spin fishing tip of the week: Been having good luck with suspended twitch baits in soft rubber and hard plastic. Most of the hits have been during pauses in the retrieve. 

7 day outlook: Seasonal temperatures, with light to moderate winds. Chance of showers Monday night into Tuesday. Morning below average low tides will provide good bar and bank fishing. 

 

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Tarpon Meatball

Hundreds of tarpon breaking on the surface and rolling ("Meatballing") off the beach in May 2013.

 

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Charlotte Harbor Tarpon comes boatside prior to a safe release

Matt Stelzer from Maine lands his first tarpon while fishing with Capt. Dave Pecci on Obsession Sportfishing Charters. May and early June is the time to find this kind of action on Charlotte Harbor in SW Florida.

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