STORY TOOLS

• E-mail story
• Comments
• iPod friendly
• Printer friendly

More Fishing and Boating

• On the Hook: Sweet fishing moments
• Securing boats when hurricanes threaten
• Fishing report: Fay's effects giving way to great fishing

Share and Enjoy [?]

It was a good week for anglers, with offshore waters yielding kingfish and mackerel and the bays producing some snook.

Capt. Dave Hanson fished Estero Bay with C.B. Fisher, his 7-year-old daughter, Cayla, and Cayla's grandfather, Frank Graves, last Monday. Shrimp were in short supply in the morning, so Hanson cast for silver jinnies and ballyhoo, and they began at the oyster bars, where they caught a bluefish and released some small fish.

Once shrimp came in, they picked up some of those and fished toward Wiggins Pass, where they caught two keeper redfish at 22 inches and 20 inches, lost another of those, and caught four keeper sheepshead. They released smaller sheepshead, a small snapper, and a 20-inch snook.

Tuesday, fishing five miles out of New Pass with Chris Polasic and fiancée Muriel Taylor, Hanson used live shrimp to catch three king mackerel to 32 inches, and triggerfish. They lost four big kings that broke the line.

Hanson fished Estero Bay toward Wiggins Pass again on Wednesday, with Bob Titmas Sr., son Bob and grandson Jake. They caught two keeper redfish, a 4 pound crevalle jack, and released small snapper, using live shrimp.

Bud Glancer and friend Steve fished in 30 feet about five miles west of Wiggins Pass with Hanson on Thursday. They caught three king mackerel to 30 inches, Spanish mackerel to 28 inches, mangrove snapper, sheepshead, triggerfish and grunts, all on live shrimp.

Friday, Jerry and Barbara Rudan fished with Hanson about six miles out of New Pass.

"We caught nine king mackerel to 29 inches, kept four of those, and released the rest," said Hanson. "We also caught four keeper mangrove snapper. Seas started to build just before we headed in, with a storm front to the north, around Tampa."

Saturday, seas were 3-4 feet, but Mick Moritz and friends decided to give the artificial reefs a try. They used live shrimp to catch nine keeper lane snapper, and they released gag grouper shorts and blue runners. They used one of the blue runners as goliath bait, and caught a goliath grouper over 200 pounds, which Moritz photographed and released.

Capt. Ron Kowalyk said there was a good bit of action in the land of the blunt skulls last week with legal reds eating shrimp, whitebait, dead or alive and whacking gold spoons, jerkbaits and DOA Shrimp with vigor.

"The bite in Estero Bay was the best of the year with reds, snook and mixed-size juvenile tarpon to 65 pounds taken on a variety of offerings," said Kowalyk. "The best bite was in the early morning incoming tide and held up until about 11 a.m.. Other areas — San Carlos Bay, Matlacha and Pine Island Sound — were a bit slower to turn on, but there were promising reports of an upturn in action late Sunday."

Special to the Banner

Father and daughter anglers Craig and Kerri Royal show off a pair of kingfish caught on a recent Fishbuster Charter offshore.

Kowalyk said the stick beaches are beginning to hold fair numbers of liners hungry for whitebait and they will take a small white fly at first light. The mackerel bite remains hot all along the Gulf beaches with a few kings, cobia and sharks making for some fun action with bait, jigs, plugs, spoons and flies.

Visit Kowalyk's Web site at www.fishswfla.com.

• From Kowalyk's Captain's Corner: I went out of my way to install the auxiliary livewell on the Flea Flicker, my fly fishing skiff. There are shoals of bait around the Big Carlos Pass Bridge and I felt compelled to carry some as a back-up for my clients who might need a break from the purist mode and take a crack at "ham and egging."

The little recirculating jobby will hold a hundred or so shiners for several hours depending on how hot it gets during the day. I change water every hour or so to keep the minnows spunky, (minnows is a Yankee term).

Anyway, after fooling around tending to the minnows' needs, they will expire after beating their scales off and becoming par-boiled even with frequent water changing. By 10 or 11 a.m., the summer back bay waters reach a temperature where recirculating wells just wouldn't hold enough oxygen to keep the delicate critters alive.

Worse yet, last weekend the tide was moving in at a grudging pace and the livies weren't producing anyway. As the population of mini-whitebaits expired, I shifted the corpses to a bucket with a few handfuls of ice from the drink cooler. As the tide flooded in under the mangroves, I began to chuck head-knocker rigs dressed with dead shiners under the canopy.

Setting the rods down with the bails open, I told my crew to finger the line on the spool. When they felt a take, let the line run-off for a two or three count, then flip the bail and reel up the slack, gently setting the hook with a sweeping sidearm motion, not too hard since we use circle hooks.

All in all, the fresh dead shiners worked better than the lives, were easier to keep on the hook, were a more generous sized offering than a single shiny, sent out a much richer scent trail and were one hell of a lot less trouble.

Submissions to Fish Tales should be made by noon each Monday. Contact Cathy Cottrill at 213-6031 or by e-mail at cccottrill@bonitanews.com. Her fax number is 213-6099.