Charlotte Harbor / Pine Island Sound Fishing Report January 4^th, 2016 - Happy New Year Everyone! Welcome to the first of 2016 weekly Fishing Reports from Charlotte Harbor Florida. My guiding season kicks later this month and I'm looking forward to enjoying the sun and warmth of Southwest Florida through early June.

Conditions: Typical January fishing conditions this week. Low water levels and dropping water temps.

Bait: Mullet, Ladyfish, pinfish, shrimp, crabs

Fishing Tactics: Cool temps and northeast winds will move the water and fish from the mangroves into the potholes and troughs. Concentrate on deeper water with slower presentations.

Species to target: Redfish, Snook Seatrout, Jacks, Spanish Mackerel and Ladyfish.

My Fly Fishing Tip of the Week: Cool water tactics, swap to a sinking or sinking intermediate line and weighted flies. Fish edges and holes.

My Spin Fishing Tip of the Week: Fish slow and low during cool water conditions.

7 day outlook: Average temps and northeast winds subsiding mid-week. 40% chance of showers on Wednesday. 

I quick note to wish you all a very Merry Holiday Season! If you are looking for a special gift consider an Obsession Sportfishing Charters Gift Certificate. You can purchase a Charlotte Harbor, FL or a Kennebec River, ME fishing charter in full or partially by credit card and I'll email you a gift certificate that can be printed out. No need to worry about reserving a date, we can do that later. Simple! Easy! This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call/text me at 207-841-1444 today.

Incredible 30 seconds of slow motion highlights of catching a 150 - 200 pound Gulf of Maine Mako caught on 30 pound stand up gear.

HOT weather this 2nd week of September is continuing to keep the striped bass deep. Good light tackle action is taking place on the ledges of the Kennebec River. The bite is not continuous but there there are lots of stripers to be found if you are persistent. fish deep and slow with worms or eels. I'm still confident that as the days cool off the fly fishing will be great.

Shark fishing is very good right now and will continue for the next 3-4 weeks. Check out the mako shark videos I posted on the Maine Fishing Videos Section of the website.

This 3 minute video captures some pretty intense action of a 15 minutes fight with a 150-200 pound mako shark. Several jumps and long runs ending with the shark leadered. We had hoped for a few boatside pictures but the mako wrapped himself in the outboard and broke off. We caught several blue sharks on spinning gear and fly rods during this trip also. Thank you to Erin and Jeremy Libby and Sumner Crawford for the camera work and colorful commentary!