As much of a hard core ice-head that I am, having a chance to head down to Florida for a week of sun, sand, and family time was a welcome break from the winter of Polar Vortices… The only way it could be any better was if I could find a way to get out and bend a rod.
My goal for the weekend was to not just to catch a fish but to find a way to do it on my own fishing from shore. Also, minus a quick 3 hour guide trip with my in-laws a couple years back I was a complete rookie. So how did I go about starting to put the pieces of the puzzle together? A little suprisingly it was exactly the same place that I always do when looking for local fishing information… our very own In-Depth Outdoors! You guys are an amazing resource and remembering that I had seen mentioned in a previous post a fellow IDO member (Fancaster) has family down in the Fort Myers area and had past experience with what I was hoping to accomplish so I reached out to him with a few questions… And then a few more questions… And then even a quick phone call. Thanks to Fancaster (aka Phil) it wasn’t long and I actually had a solid gameplan.
Part one of the plan was a quick stop at Bass Pro Shop to pick up some new tackle and probably most importantly some extra tough 30# Suffix 100% Flourocarbin leader (these fish have teeth.) Then a stop at the local bait shop, The Bait Box, to get as much info as I could about local regulations and tide movements. Finally, after switching out the hooks on everything not already geared for saltwater, it was off to the beach.
The first thing that you’ll notice if you ever find yourself on a Fla beach or pier is that if you see people fishing there is about a 99% chance they’ll be soaking a shrimp or cutbait on the bottom using a 3-way rig and lead weight. Sitting and waiting for fish to come to me isn’t my style though so with Phil’s input I had a much different gameplan to cast around the mouths of channels where water would move in and out with the tide. More than just helping me to put the plan together though was added confidence that I had from talking with someone who had experienced success in the past. Without it would have seriously been doubting my approach (maybe even given in and joined the shrimp soakers) before I finally hooked up as even Fla was experiencing unseasonable cold weather and the fishing was sloooww.
Well over 100 casts and multiple lure changes (Castmaster, X-Rap, Rippin-Rap, Jig/Plastic…) and finally while pitching a Silver VMC Tingler in front of bridge pilings and using slow sweeps of the rod to let the current of the dropping tide push my spoon into the pilings BOOM I finally connected… And not just an eater sized speckled trout that I was expecting, this was a Snook and he was pizzed off about being Tinglered! My 1st snook turned out to be only an upper 20’s inch fish, but while battling him I was envisioning about 40" as the fight was incredible especially on spinning gear. The closest comparison I can come up with is fighting a King Salmon on an 6′ medium action spinning rod.
I ended the day catching only one more snook, on a golden Castmaster, but I couldn’t have been much happier as just like James said on our SD trip, catching even one fish in a new location makes it a successful trip. Not only that but I was the only one on the beach who caught anything over about 12" long as the shrimp soakers did get a few small sheephead and a trout but nothing close the the fight that I got to experience.
It was pretty cool that I ran into several other guys on the beach also from MN, so if anyone else on here happens to be heading down to Ft Myers, or a similar location, feel free to look me up and hopefully I can help with some info just like Fancaster did for me… Which is exactly what makes it so special here on IDO!