Charlotte Harbor fishing report

After a rather cool or cold January, we’ve been experiencing a warm spell the last couple weeks. In addition, we enjoyed some calm conditions with little or no wind. I spent some time looking around Pine Island Sound and was fortunate enough to find a good spotted sea trout bite and a decent number of tailing redfish on our low negative tides around the full moon. We’re all keeping an eye out on the red tide that’s in the Gulf and monitoring the releases coming from Lake Okeechobee. I’ve been lucky in that the backcountry where I spend most of my time the water has been clean. Moreover, we’re still fortunate to have some relatively healthy sea grass. For the trout, a clouser has been effective as most of them are laying low in the sand holes scattered among the turtle grass. I like a small kwan or shrimp style pattern for the tailing redfish. Up against the mangroves, the low tides have kept most of the redfish and even the snook from getting too far up into the root system so I’m seeing more fish on the flats outside the bushes. As a result, they’re very wary and difficult to approach. Right now, the best tactic is working the deeper pockets around shoreline points.