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More Fishing and Boating

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With red tide on Barefoot Beach, algae on Fort Myers Beach, mysterious mud to the north and a pair of rainy days, it's a wonder anglers even bothered to venture out last week. The hardy souls who did, however, had luck with a little bit of everything.

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Andrew Caruso and his dad, Paul Caruso, with a nice Estero Bay redfish caught on a trip with Capt. Ron Kowalyk.

Fishbuster Charters' Capt. Dave Hanson fished in 45 feet out of New Pass last Monday with the Patrick Smith party. They used live shrimp and shiners to catch keeper mangrove snapper and Spanish mackerel to 28 inches. They released a small hogfish, triggerfish, and grouper shorts, along with a 24-inch bonito and a 4-foot nurse shark.

Wednesday, fishing in 35 feet out of New Pass, using live shrimp, Don Hudson, daughter Ciarra, and her friend Ann Cooper caught eight keeper mangrove snapper to 14 inches. The big catch of the day was a 41-inch king mackerel, which was the first Hanson had seen in several weeks.

The Jerry Sterret party dodged most of the morning rains with Hanson on Friday, but they did come back in during a downpour. They fished with live shrimp and a few shiners, in 30 feet out of New Pass, catching 14 mangrove snapper to 14 inches, Spanish mackerel to 26 inches, and released a few small kings to 17 inches, two small goliath grouper, triggerfish, and gag and red grouper shorts.

Capt. Alex Dolinski ran a bay trip on July 1 in Estero, catching four slot-size redfish, three snook over 26 inches and plenty of snapper.

Last Monday, he ran offshore around 60 miles, trolling four lines with ballyhoo and two flatlines with Mann stretch lures, producing five nice kingfish, three around 25 pounds and one that was 48 pounds. He also saw lots of Spanish and bonito.

"We also found three nice triple tail under a floating board and one nice cobia in the 40 pound range. He ran offshore with the Devlins again on Saturday.

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Andrew Caruso shows off a goliath grouper weighing around 17 pounds, caught on a recent charter with Capt. Ron Kowalyk.

"It was raining at the dock at 5 a.m., but we went out anyway," Dolinski said. "Once we cleared the reefs, we had perfect conditions with flat seas and very little rain, so we ran out to the same area as before and caught lots of large Spanish mackerel, three kingfish around 25 pounds and two nice cobia. There's lots of bait and working birds offshore. You just have to play the weather and run out to find them."

Capt. Ron Kowalyk said a little relief from the morning storms and slightly cooler morning temperatures made for better fishing opportunities last week.

"The red tide was all but gone by Friday and the waters cleared nicely in the wayback bays and creeks where there was a reasonable midmorning bite," he said. "Reds, snook and snapper took up the bite and were fairly cooperative although you had to keep covering ground as the fish were dispersed. The best action was at the passes on the early incoming and early outgoing tides. Snook were very active."

The best redfish action came on the outgoing with special attention to Big Carlos Pass. Things remained a bit slower up north in Pine Island Sound, at least for Kowalyk and his crews. Again, the best bites were in the passes and on the stick beaches. There are numbers of smallish tarpon up in the Cape Coral canals, but keeping your whitebait alive in the sweet water was a problem. Early bird anglers were able to connect with flies, surface plugs and small Gulp Crabs. There are good numbers of snook up there too, so bring along a couple of dozen live shrimp and some DOA Shrimp. Golden freshwater shiners are alternative again. Mud Minnows and mullet will hold up well in the rivers, but again, it's a time-intensive task to dig them and still get on the early bite through the slow speed zone.

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

• From Kowalyk's Captain's Corner: It's more important than ever to get those first light starts when the summer waters are hovering around 85 plus and the storms are brewing early in the Gulf. Keeping you patterns simple, your kit small and devising a reasonable float plan will help get you into the bite. Light is right during the summer — use light leaders, braided line, circle hooks or kahle to match the bait. A very modest selection of your favorite jerkbaits, plugs and flies, with several rods pre-rigged will help keep you focused. Rig a couple of your rods with stainless steel snaps for quick changes. Make the best use of the summer low light and heat periods! Remember, your first guess is almost always right.

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.