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Fish Tales

By CATHY COTTRILL (Contact)

Monday, March 19, 2007

In typical March fashion, last week’s few balmy days gave way to yet another cold front that brought gusty weather and limited opportunities for anglers.

Fishbuster Charters Capt. Dave Hanson fished last Monday with Jon and Rebecca Marty and Rebecca’s parents, Larry and Diane, in 45-48 feet northwest of New Pass. They caught plenty of good eating fish for the group, using live shrimp to lure keeper sheepshead, Spanish mackerel, mangrove snapper, triggerfish, grunts and porgies.

Tuesday, Hanson fished some different spots with Louis Wolfe and friends in about 30 feet off Wiggins Pass. There were loads of small bait fish and blue runners everywhere, and Hanson was hoping they might be predicting the arrival of the king mackerel, but no such luck yet.

"We did catch a dozen Spanish mackerel to 22 inches, sheepshead and grunts, and we released small gags,’’ he said.

Hanson fished a windy Wednesday morning with Ralph and Kristen Daby in Estero Bay around Big Carlos Pass. They kept five pretty nice sheepshead to 15 inches and a mangrove snapper, and released lots of smaller ones. They also caught keeper Spanish mackerel in the pass, all on live shrimp.

Seas started building on Thursday in advance of a cold front approaching. Brothers Bob and Eric Erickson and their dad, Kent, had planned to fish a full day, but they took the first wave over the bow by noon, and decided They’d head in about 12:30. They did well with keeper sheepshead — a dozen of those to 20 inches, along with Spanish mackerel to 24 inches. They released smaller sheepshead and triggerfish in 38 feet off Sanibel.

"It was a good day for bay fishing Friday,’’ Hanson said. "The rains predicted never arrived here — they seemed to hit mostly south of us. In fact, the weather front brought higher than normal tides in the bay, which worked in our behalf. I loaded up on live shrimp, and headed out for a morning of fishing with Joe Goodall and his 6-year-old son, Alex, Dave Bixby and Charlie Cinader.’’

The group fished up toward New Pass and caught a bunch of nice sheepshead, keeping 11 of those to 15 inches. They also got a keeper redfish at 18½ inches, and released a 22-inch snook, along with the rest of the sheepshead.

Hanson ended up fishing the bay again on Saturday, since the tides were still higher than expected, with the wind out of the north. His anglers had planned to fish offshore, but were thwarted by 5-8 foot seas, so they decided to swap their Gulf plans for a morning of fishing in Estero Bay.

Leon Dargis, sons Kurt and Brett, and 9-year-old grandson Blake fished with Hanson in the same spots he’d fished yesterday. They had good success again with sheepshead — catching seven of those to 16 inches — and also got an 18½-inch redfish, and released a 20-inch snook, almost a carbon copy of Friday’s trip.

Capt. Ron Kowalyk said the bite was tough last week, but he still saw a few fish,

"Chilly winds and very low morning tides made for late morning starts and dressing in layers,’’ he said. "Otherwise, the bite was in step with the weather and tides. We found fair numbers of reds, juvie snook and bigger sheepies in the creeks and canals feeding into Estero Bay.’’

Kowalyk said the open bay provided a good bit of action on mixed-size trout, big ladyfish, jacks and Spanish. Kowalyk fished out front on the close marks, but it was untenable at times and it was hard to anchor up on the reefs. Driftfishing was tough with all the wind.

"We did, however, catch good numbers of big Spanish when conditions calmed down,’’ he added. "Hendry Creek and the Imperial and Estero rivers held fair to good mixed bag bites with big jacks and juvie snook the major players. We chased some baby tarpon in the wayback creeks this week, but the sighting was better than the biting. The cold front that moved through will take a few warm-up days before the bite recovers.’’