The expansive grass flats of Charlotte Harbor holds countless numbers of spotted sea trout. These fun-to-catch fish will hit about anything you throw at them. We use soft plastics and top water lures on spinning gear and a variety of subsurface and top water flies on speckled trout.
Hello clients and blog followers, I thought I would update you on what happening in my part of Southwest Florida. I am in Maine working on some carpentry projects and will be flying to Port Charlotte on Saturday the 21st to resume guiding.
"I am rigged, ready and looking forward to guiding you on beautiful Charlotte Harbor. Your past, present and future business is greatly appreciated."
Capt. Dave Pecci 3/13/20
Fishing Conditions: Pretty good conditions this week. Water quality and clarity will be excellent throughout Pine Island Sound and Gasparilla. Lots of moving water and falling tides will keep the active all morning.
My tips of the week: With dropping tides the fish will be coming out of the mangroves and cruising the sand and grass inside the bars.
Capt. Dave Pecci 2/24/20
Tarpon will be rolling and gulping air early. By mid-morning they will be running and daisy chaining below the surface.
05-02-17 Fishing Report
There are a few tarpon and big snook on the beaches. More of them are showing up with each tide change.
Capt. Dave Pecci April 24th Fishing Report
Conditions: Morning low tides will provide good moving water and a variety of fishing opportunities this week. Water clarity will be excellent. Water temps will rise back into the high 70s.
The morning dropping tides this week will
Capt. Dave Pecci - Obsession Sportfishing
provide great fishing around the oyster beds. As the tide comes back in and the
sun angle increases the flats will be the place to target...
Outlook: Hot with excellent morning tides all week. We'll have some southerly wind to contend with but with water temps in the high 70s...
April 3rd Fishing Report
Light winds and no rain! Perfect fishing weather. There are some jack crevalle and huge snook on the flats so up-size your leaders and bite tippets.
03-28-17 Fishing Report
Day one - 40* at the boat ramp 60* water and 20mph north winds. Day two - warmer and less wind. Not a stellar day but we got it done.
The Wilson family from Knoxville joined for a morning of fly fishing on Matlacha Pass. An approaching clod front pushed the snook and trout off the flats and into deep water. Solution - sinking lines and weighted flies.
Gordon and I pre-fished Bull and Turtle Bays a day prior to one of my March charters. The wind was 15 and gusty out of the NE. We found most of the fish holding in deeper water but once we found them the snook, sea trout, jacks and ladyfish were very willing to bite our lures. There's some pretty cool underwater video included in this one. Enjoy!
John Albin and Jim McCadie joined me for a few days of fly fishing. We fished Matlacha, Pine Island Sound and the Cape Haze Peninsula. Water temps and water clarity provided some excellent sight fishing opportunities.
Dry conditions continue. Water levels in the Harbor are low. Water Temps are in the mid-seventies. Water clarity is very good...
"Many of my redfish and snook spots are not holding bait or fish because of the low water conditions. Working potholes and deeper grass flats has been very productive..."
03-07-17 Fishing Report
7 day outlook: The coming week will more like April than the start of March
02-27-17 Fishing Report Capt. Dave Pecci
Conditions: I fished the East Wall, Matlacha Pass, Gasparilla Sound, Bull Bay and Turtle Bay last week. The water clarity was very good throughout the Harbor and it should be the same this week. There's a red tide bloom along the beaches from Boca Grande to Manasota Key but it hasn't entered the sounds or bays...
Water temps are now in the mid-low 70s. Salinity remains high due to the lack of rain. Fishing conditions are excellent.
Capt. Dave Pecci - Obsession Sportfishing
Conditions: We continue to have very good water clarity and quality due to the dry conditions throughout Charlotte Harbor. Water temps are in the low 70s. Average tides this week will provide for good flats fishing. The bite in Matlacha as well as Bull Bay and Turtle Bay has been good. Pine Island Sound's grass flats have been producing seatrout and redfish, concentrate on the deeper portions of the flats. The Keys along the East Wall of the Harbor are holding redfish of varying sizes and a few snook. If you're looking for trout in that area they'll be on the outside of the bar in deeper water.
The mid-day ebb tides will move the fish off the flats. Work the holes and edges until the water level increases.
02-13-17 Obsession Charters Fishing Report
I'm sorry but it hard to justify the cost of a Micro Power Pole. They are half the price of those full size ones you see on bay boats but still they're $700 plus installation - Really?...
Problem #1- About 75% of the spots I like to stake up here on Charlotte Harbor for sea trour, redfish and snook are hard packed limestone sand or oysters. You just can't poke a push pole into that stuff.
Problem #2 - An anchor really tears up grass flats and oysters beds.
This makes a power pole pretty appealing for sure but I'm cheap.
Here's my $90 alternative. A 7 foot Stick It stake out pin from Fishin Franks and two $3.00 nylon fairleads from the Marine Trading Post. Stick It makes a really nice mount for $150, but I like $6.00 much better and I finally have a use for the rear trolling motor mount that came with the skiff.
Yeh, I do have to take two steps across the aft casting deck to deploy the pin rather than pushing on a cool remote control. When not in use, it stows perfectly in the Redfisher's rod rack. Works just fine for me and there's $600 left in the checkbook.
Charlotte Harbor is Florida’s second largest estuary encompassing 270 square miles. Over 80% of its shoreline is preserved land. There are more than 15 boat ramps and many kayak access point on the Harbor providing easy access to great fishing.
May light tackle and fly action: May is all about tarpon. The spawning migration has started and there have a few tarpon being caught in the Sounds, Passes and along beaches the past two weeks. By mid-month the fishing will be in high gear. The back country waters are in the low to mid 80s so the best fishing will be early and late in the day. Mid-day will provide lots of lookers and refusals unless you’re pitching bait. The large snook are moving their way to the beaches and the sounds.
Conditions: We are settling into our early summer weather patterns with offshore winds early switching to sea breezes in the afternoons. Water temps will be in the low to mid 80s. April was very dry so the salinity in the lower harbor and the sounds are average or slightly above. The upper harbor fishing has slowed somewhat do the warm weather and lack of rain. Greatly reduced Lake Okeechobee discharges into the Caloosahatchee River has improved the water quality in lower Pine Island Sound.
Bait the fish are feeding on: shrimp, crabs, pinfish, ladyfish. Some whitebait in Matlacha Pass, upper Pine Island Sound, Gasparilla sound and on Bokeelia Shoals. There’s lots of threadfins and greeenbacks on the beaches.
May Fishing Tactics: The back country; with the warm and dry conditions fishing becomes an early morning game. Go early fish the moving water near the mangroves until the sun gets up. As soon as it gets bright shift you attention to deeper cuts between islands and keys and the depressions in the mangrove creek mouths. The deeper edges of grass flats will hold sea trout throughout May.
My April Fly Fishing Tip: Many of my clients want to fly fishing for tarpon in May. I carry two set ups on the boat for them. A floating line with a suspending fly for the fish coming over the shallow bars and a sink tip line with a weighted fly for when the fish are laid up or doing daisy chains in deeper water. prespawn tarpon can be finicky, the fly placement is key. Many times they will only move a few inches to eat.
My April Light Tackle Tip: Don’t get in a rut using a particular tarpon bait. Crabs are wonderful bait but if you are getting refused show them something else. Pinfish, whitebait, cut ladyfish, sail cat tails, even shrimp can turn on the finickiest tarpon.
Species to fish for this month: Tarpon, Snook Redfish, Spotted Seatrout.
Last Week - Excellent fishing! We had tons of fly and light tackle fishing action last week. And, this coming week will be just as good! I posted some killer video from last week's action, you can check them out on my blog's Florida Fishing Video section. There's over 30 videos posted.
This week's Forecast
Conditions: Excellent all this coming week - Mid day high tides will provide moving water. Morning low tides will congregate the fish along the oyster beds and grass banks.
Species to fish for this coming week: Snook, Redfish, Spotted Seatrout, Jack Crevalle, Tarpon, Ladyfish, Spanish Mackerel, Cobia.
Bait the fish are feeding on: shrimp, crabs, pinfish, ladyfish, Scaled Sardines, Threadfin Herring
Fishing Tactics: Start early and fish the edges of oysters and grass for trout, snook and reds. As the tide comes in move onto the flats fishing the sand holes for trout and reds.
My fly fishing tip of the week: Lots of white bait (sardines and herring) around so olive and white deceivers are the choice.
My spin fishing tip of the week: MirroLure suspending twitch baits are the lure of choice. 2nd choice would be a bubble gum or new penny soft bait on a ¼ once jig head.
7 day outlook: Fantastic weather with light winds from the E and NE will provide excellent fishing. The snook, redfish and jack crevalle action will be very good this week.
Stefan Piccone had a great couple days of back country fly fishing with me in Matlacha Pass this week.
Stefan is a true magician when it comes to wiggling the fly out mangroves branches and is very good at reading the waters of Charlotte Harbor. Even with a southwest of wind and cloudy water we had two very productive and fun days together. by the way, catching 6-8 pound jack cravalle in 2' of water on a Helios 2 8wt. fly rod is FUN!
Safe travels home Stefan, I hope to see you again the next time you are in SW Florida.
