by John Kumiski

Do you want to know how to find and catch saltwater gamefish in Pine Island Sound? Below I tell you how!

INTRODUCTION
Pine Island Sound runs parallel to the southwest Florida coast between Pine Island and a string of barrier islands including Cayo Costa, North Captiva, Captiva, and Sanibel Islands. A fairly shallow body of water, Pine Island Sound offers fish and the fishermen who chase them a diverse array of habitat types- mangrove shorelines, oyster bars, grass flats pocked with sandy potholes, and loads of small islands. Boca Grande Pass, Redfish Pass, Captiva Pass and Blind Pass (unfortunately now filled in by storms) provide for considerable water movement in the Sound and another type of fishing area for the angler. The primary species of gamefish which concern the angler here include tarpon, snook, redfish, and seatrout. Of course jack crevalle and ladyfish are often found, and many other species often make an appearance, too.

TACKLE
Spin, plug and fly tackle all have their devotees and all types work here. While to an extent what you're fishing for will dictate the type of tackle to use, some generalizations can be made. Spin fishermen will want an outfit with a six to seven foot rod matched to a quality reel with 150-200 yards of eight to twelve pound test monofilament. Plug fishermen will want a similar type of outfit, although they may opt for a slightly heavier line.

Being able to cover the entire water column is important in a good lure selection. Surface and subsurface plugs, weedless spoons, jigs, and some soft plastic baits will all come in handy. Since we have lots of catch and release fishing in Florida nowadays, try to find lures with only one hook. The deep running DOA Bait Busters have one large single hook and work well as subsurface plugs. The Johnson Minnow has been a redfish standard for a long time and still proves effective on a daily basis. Be sure to carry a file to sharpen the hook of this spoon!

The DOA line of lures should not be overlooked. They market a shallow and deep running mullet imitation (the BaitBusters), a shrimp in several sizes, and a small pilchard-sized bait called TerrorEyz. All of these lures are exceptional fish catchers.

RipTide carries an extensive line of soft plastic baits.  Some of these (the jerk baits and the new mullet baits) can be used with an unweighted hook rigged Texas-style and fished like plastic worms. Others (the shrimp, curly, and shad tails) are designed to be used with a jig head, and RipTide markets a beautifully designed weedless head that goes right through the grass. (Sadly, they just discontinued this particular product. Owner makes a similar one.) Other popular and effective lines of jigs include the Cotee jig and the DOA CAL.

I've pretty much stopped using gang hook plugs for my own fishing. However, many plugs are very effective. Some of the better ones include the Mirrolure line, the Bagley baits, especially their Finger Mullet series, the Bomber, Rebel, and Rapala type of plugs, Zara Spooks and other walk-the dog types, and the Rat-L-Traps.

Flyfishers want a rod in the nine foot, eight-weight range. A weight forward floating line handles most needs. Make sure there's plenty of backing on the reel. Leaders should be nine or ten feet long, tapered to a 12- 15 pound tippet. If you expect to encounter snook, and that is always a possibility here, a 30 pound fluorocarbon bite tippet works well as insurance.

Hundreds of fly patterns exist. You absolutely need Clouser deep minnows in various colors, with various sizes of eyes. Deceivers in white and/or chartreuse, seaducers in red and white and red and yellow, a couple of poppers, some mullet imitations (I like the woolhead siliclones), and a 3-D style fly tied to imitate a pilchard will cover 90% of your fly needs. Put weedguards on some of your flies!

Regardless of the type of tackle you use, you'll need a shock tippet. While the standard has been 30-40 pound monofilament, fluorocarbon is better.

WHEN TO FISH
When to fish, season-wise, depends on which species you are most interested in. Beginning on New Year's Day and looking at an entire year, fishing is least consistent during the winter months. Passing cold fronts play havoc with the fish's feeding schedules. Cold water temperatures drive some species (like tarpon) out of the Sound entirely, and greatly reduce the metabolism of those that remain. Snook have mostly retreated to thermal refuges far into the backcountry. The schools of big bull reds are out in the Gulf of Mexico. In the Sound itself you'll find seatrout, some in the slot sized reds, and a few lethargic snook. You can have some fantastic fishing, but it's very weather dependent.

The most consistent winter fishing is for tailing redfish on low tides. You want the tide to be 1.0 feet or less. Look for the fish on shallow, turtle grass flats surrounded by deeper water. These are most common on the east side of the sound. Look for congregations of wading birds, and concentrations of mullet. If no one has run a boat through there recently the fish will be there. If it's been cold, late in the day will be best.

The longer days of spring warm the water. It's snook time! After trying to stay warm all winter, snook come out of hiding looking to put on some weight, getting ready for the summer spawn. They are hungry and feed aggressively. March may be the best snook fishing month of the year.

Tarpon start showing up toward the end of the spring, too. Much of the tarpon activity is congregated around Boca Grande Pass, and although tarpon also travel through the sound, this fishing isn't as consistent. One place to look for tarpon in Pine Island Sound at this time is known as Captiva Rocks, a spoil area to the east of North Captiva Island. Fosters Point, east of Captiva Island, is another place to look. Finally, in the Bokeelia area of Pine Island, where the Sound joins Charlotte Harbor is another area where tarpon sometimes congregate.

Of course seatrout activity increases during the spring. Redfish start schooling in March and April.

During the summer months snook fishing moves into the passes and along the beaches. This isn't to say that you won't find any snook in the Sound, though. The fish will tend to concentrate along the inside of the barrier islands and near the passes. Tarpon will thin out, but some concentrations of smaller fish will still be found, especially in deeper areas adjacent to grass flats. Of course seatrout will be found on deeper grass flats, and schools of reds will start being seen. The big herds of reds start showing up in August, with activity peaking in the fall during the month of October.

Fall provides the finest redfishing of the year. Huge wads of reds travel together, hundreds of fish, feeding around stingrays, tailing and feeding freely in preparation for the colder days to come. Catching dozens in a day is possible on conventional tackle. Snook start moving back into the backcountry too, and still feed with abandon. Gangs of jack crevalle roam through the Sound, terrorizing mullet and other bait fish. In some of these schools the fish average 15 pounds. Seatrout, as always, are available as daysavers.

As you work into December, fronts start rolling through again, the water temperature has dropped, and the circle has come full. Inconsistency is on tap again for another winter.

TECHNIQUES and LOCATIONS
Before you can catch any fish you must find them. Pine Island Sound is a large body of water and the best way to find out where the fish are is to hire a guide for a day (see below). However, you may wish to go it alone. Here is some advice for you.

First, get a nautical chart. NOAA chart #11427, Fort Myers to Charlotte Harbor and Wiggins Pass, covers the entire Sound. If you can't find it locally you can order this chart by phone with a credit card from the National Ocean Service at (301) 436-6990. Another very useful chart is Top Spot chart #N-203, Charlotte Harbor area, available from Argonaut Publishing. This chart has fish holding areas clearly marked on it.

The passes attract fish. The flow brings water of a different temperature in, and also carries bait. Sightfishing grass flats around the passes is therefore a good place to start. The grass flats north of Captiva Island, out to the east of Pejuan Cove, often hold redfish during season. The flats inside Redfish Pass do the same, and as you might guess, so do the flats inside of Blind Pass.

--- NOTICE! Blind Pass has shoaled in and is no longer navigable!---

Inside the barrier islands snook often lie in wait for passing bait. Recently Tommy Locke showed me hundreds and hundreds of snook lying along the east side of Cayo Costa Island, sunning themselves in the shallows as they tried to warm up in the chilly 65 degree water. Although we didn't have much luck enticing these fish to strike, Tommy assures me that when the water warms up above 70 degrees these fish feed aggressively.

Other good areas to search for snook and reds include:
-the flats and bars just west of Patricio Island;
-the flats and mangrove shorelines between Part Island and Rocky Channel;
-the flats and bars around Cat Key and Josselyn Island;
-Captiva Rocks, directly east of Captive Pass on the eastern side of the ICW;
-the eastern shoreline of the Sound between Big Panther Key and Demere Key. You can find fish in other areas of course. I don't want to deprive you of the joy of the hunt by telling everything!

Now the purist usually poles or electric motors along searching for fish. Once he sees them he casts and tries to entice a strike. Reds can be taken this way with varying degrees of success. However, snook are very tough, usually seeing you before you see them.

There are a couple of solutions to this problem. One is to blind cast and hope for the best, and this often works. But what most of the guides do to practically guarantee success for their anglers is to net up between 500 and 1000 live minnows, known locally as whitebait, and use these to chum the fish into submission.

In order to catch the bait you need a small mesh cast net, 3/8ths or 1/4 inch, 10 or 12 feet in diameter, and a good livewell to keep them in. The baits can be caught off the beaches sometimes, or on deeper grassflats or near channel markers otherwise. The minnows, usually pilchards, are usually chummed into net range with a mixture of cat food and jack mackerel. It may take a lot of throws to get a sufficient number of baits, and catching the bait sometimes takes a couple of hours. Once the bait is in the livewell it's time to go fishing.

You still need to know where the fish are. Assuming this is known, the boat is anchored 50-60 feet upwind and upcurrent of the fish. The baits are thrown out two or three at a time. Sooner or later the fish are going to start popping them. You as an angler need to resist the temptation to cast until every single bait that's thrown out is blasted as soon as it hits the water. At this point the fish are really worked up, and will hit almost anything you throw out there. Every cast will bring a strike. This technique is how anglers get 50 snook days, or 100 redfish days. There are many who question the ethics of this method, but few question its effectiveness.

Flyfishers fishing the redfish schools in the fall may get lucky and find them tailing. They often exhibit this behavior around spawning stingrays. World class fishing can be had by anchoring up and wading, stalking individual fish. Flyfishers can catch as many as fifteen fish on a tide doing this, and this is classic fishing- no chumming involved.

ACCESS
For Waders-There isn't a great deal of access for waders in Pine Island Sound unless you have a boat. One place you can wade is at the north end of Pine Island, in Bokeelia. Blind Pass on Captiva Island also has access.

For Boaters- Boat ramps can be found at the following places:
-in Placida, just before the Boca Grande Causeway on CR 775;
-in Englewood off of CR 775;
-at the Burnt Store Marina, on the east side of Charlotte Harbor, off of SR 765;
-at Pineland Marina off of SR 767 toward the northern end of Pine Island (private);
-at fish camps and waterfront motels throughout the area.
-at Punta Rassa, on the east end of the Sanibel Causeway.

GUIDES
 There a lot of good guides in this area. Here are a few:
-Captain Phil O'Bannon (941) 964-0359. Phil is nationally recognized. One of his steady customers is former President George Bush.
-Capt. Pete Greenan, www.floridaflyfishing.com, 941-923-6095
-Captain Rick DePaiva, 231.246-8726, www.saltwaterflyfishing.org
-Captain Paul Hobby, 941.433.1007.

TACKLE SHOPS
Boca Grande Outfitters, 941.964.2445.
Fishing Unlimited, an Orvis Shop on Boca Grande. 941.964-0907.
Lehr's Economy Tackle in Fort Myers, 941.995.2280.
Shallow Water Outfitters in Punta Gorda. 941.637-9989.

STATE PARKS AND OTHER ATTRACTIONS
-Cayo Costa State Park, PO Box 1150, Boca Grande, 33921. (813)964-0375. Accessible only by boat, but a ferry runs out to the island from the Pineland Marina. Camping right on the Gulf of Mexico is the main attraction here. Fishing is literally at your doorstep.
-There is a restaurant on Cabbage Key in Pine Island Sound which is famous for its excellent lunches, and was the inspiration for the Jimmy Buffet song, "Hamburger in Paradise". It's an unusual and interesting place which is worth a visit.
-The beaches in this area are famous for their shelling opportunities.

CONCLUSION
This Special Report has detailed some of the how-to and where-to information you need in order to fish successfully in Pine Island Sound. Follow its advice, and you can't help but catch some fish! Call me with praise or constructive criticism, and let me know how fishing was!

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This article was written by John Kumiski of John Kumiski Outdoors and Travel. Contact him at his website www.johnkumiski.com or via email at john@spottedtail.com. Copyright John Kumiski.

John Kumiski 's most recent fishing guidebooks are How and Where to Catch Redfish in the Indian River Lagoon System (Argonaut Publishing Company), and Fishing Florida's Space Coast (Argonaut Publishing Company).

John Kumiski's newest book is Redfish on the Fly- A Comprehensive Guide .

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