Windy day redfish action in Pine Island sound

[Capt Matt]

Redfish action today in 25mph + winds, the only reason it does not look rougher is its only 18 inches deep where we caught them.
It was harder today to catch a ladyfish for cut bait than it was to catch the 4 reds we got. We only caught one ladyfish in almost 2 hours, could not get past tall the trout.  The ladyfish made 6 cut baits. 4 for 6 aint bad though
Capt Matt

My wife Sam with a 29 incher, too big for dinner

A red just over 27 inches still too big to eat
We did end up with two slot fish though a 23 and a 24 incher, Blackened redfish for dinner tomorrow.

[gran398]

Matt, SWEET    

Fitz said the wind was blowing like crazy on the other side too.

Maybe this high will settle in on you guys quick like it did up here. Hard E this morning. Went dead calm to SE at 2mph at 3 pm this afternoon.

[Capt Matt]

Still waiting for it to lay down to go run some crab buoys for tripletail. These are my favorite fish to eat and love sight fishing them. Its just too easy from a tower.  Hopefully get calm by mid week when all the weekend warriors are at work
Capt Matt

[seabob4]

Still waiting for it to lay down to go run some crab buoys for tripletail. These are my favorite fish to eat and love sight fishing them. Its just too easy from a tower.  Hopefully get calm by mid week when all the weekend warriors are at work
Capt Matt

Matt,
Tripletail.  Excellent table fare, but I'll still take snook!!  Beauty reds, BTW.  We like them around 18 1/2...  

[Capt Matt]

Hopefully in Sept 2012 we can have a Snook Taco's again. Did have some good snook action early in the week as the cold front went though.
Trade them all though for a big flounder.
Capt Matt

[seabob4]

Hopefully in Sept 2012 we can have a Snook Taco's again. Did have some good snook action early in the week as the cold front went though.
Trade them all though for a big flounder.
Capt Matt

Is there such a thing anymore?  Back in the good old days on Sarasota Bay, we'd catch multiple doormats every time out...

I like snook nuggets, deep fried in a fish 'n chips beer batter...yum, yum, yum!!

[Capt Matt]

Last winter I caught more flounder than I can ever remember in Pine Island sound. Had a few charters where I cleaned 10 plus fish. Most of the time they are small in the 12-18 inch range. While drifting a pass last winter with pinfish for snook I caught one just shy of 6 pounds, call it a Fluke but it was my largest ever by at least 2 pounds
Capt Matt

PS remember when we could eat snook at 18 inches?

[seabob4]

Last winter I caught more flounder than I can ever remember in Pine Island sound. Had a few charters where I cleaned 10 plus fish. Most of the time they are small in the 12-18 inch range. While drifting a pass last winter with pinfish for snook I caught one just shy of 6 pounds, call it a Fluke but it was my largest ever by at least 2 pounds
Capt Matt

PS remember when we could eat snook at 18 inches?

Matt, that was quite some time ago...Hell, I used to work with guys that would pull (3) 162 quarts full of trout at night off of Rod n Reel...

[Capt Matt]

I think 1981 is when they changed the snook size reg, If I remember right we had a big freeze and snook kill that year that is why they changed it
Capt Matt

[Capt. Bob]

1981 saw the bag limit change from 4 to 2 a day.
Size limit changed to 26"    just during June and July. Otherwise it was 18"
Measurement was still fork length.

Blind Pass was the spot for us Miami tourist.
Matt, I'm sure you knew it well.

[daniel123]

Matt:

How do you fish cut ladyfish for reds? We'll be down your way in a few months and I've never used anything but live shrimp or soft-plastics for reds.

Dan

[Capt Matt]

We are still catching fish in Blind pass, last summer I had 3 snook over 20 pounds in there along with more I can count over 10 pounds. The pass still had some snook in there this week along with lots of trout and some sheepshead. The flounder in the picture was caught in Blind Pass.  Around the big moon low tides its just a no brainer in there.   It takes local knowledge though to cross blind pass on the low water as the marked channel has now filled in. The pass was closed for about 10 years before they dredged it. I've been making a living in there since they reopened it 2 to 3 years ago, I Spent a lot of time there as a kid growing up on Sanibel with a coleman lantern hanging down on the water, In winter time we used to dip net shrimp there to eat and to use as snook bait.

Cut your fresh caught ladyfish into roughly 1 inch steaks and rig it freeline. Skip it back under the mangroves and let it sit. The reds in the picture are out on a grass flat and they follow the mullet schools around. I pitch out 4 rods, sit them in the holders and kick back, lazy man style.
I catch roughly 50% of my redfish on cut bait either cut ladyfish or cut mullet.
Tight lines
Capt Matt