Welcome to September, the very best month to fish the flats
around Pine Island and Matlacha as far as I’m concerned. Everything you could possibly want to catch
in the shallow water will be here in force and should stick around well into
the fall.
Tarpon season is still in full swing as long as you’re
looking for the smaller ones. The huge
migratory fish have moved along and won’t be back until next spring, but a few
big stragglers can still be picked off in Charlotte Harbor and off the Gulf
beaches. The real action is happening in
the dark waters of Matlacha Pass where hundreds of resident juveniles pop up at
sunrise every calm morning. These ten to
twenty pounders are my favorite fish and the perfect fly rod species. They spend the entire fight in the air and
can be boated quickly without a lot of stress to both the tarpon and the
angler.
Redfish are already pouring onto the flats in big schools as
they get ready to spawn. While there aren’t
any negative low tides this month, which are always the best tailing
conditions, you’ll still have several periods of skinny water over last two
weeks of September where feeding reds are easy to spot. Pine Island Sound has dozens of excellent
flats but the huge stretch of water just north of Pineland Marina is often
Ground Zero for schooling redfish. I’ve
seen them so thick out there that they look like a solid blob of orange coming
towards my skiff. These big schools
aren’t an everyday sight but when it happens they’re easy to spot and even
easier to catch. Throw almost anything
that moves in front of them and you’ll get a strike.
Sea trout made a nice return in the middle of August and the
cooler mornings of September give us even better conditions for this easy to
catch gamefish. Just about every angler
in Southwest Florida knows that a Cajun Cork with a live shrimp or Gulp under
it is magic on trout and effortless to use.
They also love to eat flies and are a great species to target for
beginners. An inexpensive 8-weight and a
handful of Clouser Minnows will nail trout all day long. The Two Pines area is a great place to find
them just inside the Burnt Store sandbar.
Two to four feet over the grass and sandy potholes is perfect,
especially on rising tides during the morning hours.
Finally, snook season is once again open here on the west
coast of Florida. For those of you who
are new to the area, keep in mind that you’ll need an additional $10 stamp on
your saltwater license if you want to keep one of these fish. Snook are some of the more heavily regulated
species in Florida and rightly so. Just
taste one that’s been properly grilled and you’ll know why. You have to work harder than ever to land a
slot sized snook, which are between 28 to 33 inches and you’re only allowed one
per day. Even if you’re not interesting
in keeping any, most of our shorelines will hold them. I love working a topwater lure like a Zara
Spook or Flats Walker along the mangroves to get that explosive strike, especially
at high tide, but a baitwell full of live pilchards is more effective than
anything.
So that’s September in a nutshell, lots of fish and cooler
weather. And that’s not even the best
part. This is also one of the slowest
months of the year for tourism and the majority of our snowbird residents are
still up north. If you’re out on the
flats during most weekdays you’ll often have the water all to yourself. Enjoy it while it lasts.
