Spring Transition

Our transition from a winter to spring pattern is finally here. It was a long winter as what seemed like endless cold fronts kept pushing through the peninsula. As a result, with the end of the negative tides and water temperatures in the mid 70’s I’ve begun making my way north out of Pine Island Sound and onto the flats and mangrove islands along the east side of the harbor. This is a huge area that extends all the way from Matlacha to Punta Gorda. It’s a literal labyrinth of mangrove island shorelines filled with deeper cuts, island points, and small creek systems. Here, redfish, snook, and juvenile tarpon  are the species of choice. Last week, before the wind and weather, a combination of sight fishing, working island points, and any where we could cast a fly up under the bushes produced some small snook, good sized redfish and even a few trout hanging out under the overhanging mangroves. It was encouraging to see so many juvenile snook. We threw an eight-weight and weight forward floating line. Small baitfish patterns tied with a weed guard worked well.