FINALLY got to do some fishing when i visited my parents down by Naples. I havent got to get a line wet in about 3mo because i cant find any good shore access around here. didnt get around to fishing saltwater, but i had a pretty good day fishing the Imperial River and a feeder pond at my buddy's apt complex. biggest fish (the black one out of the Imperial) came in at 21". Also caught some florida gar and Mayan Cichlids (pictured). also saw a couple MONSTER snook cruising the river and missed on a senko in the pond. the fish caught were on poppers and zara spooks. the cichlid was caught on hot dog
Its kind of nice because every angler is concerned with fishing bays, passes, and the gulf, that the freshwater angling is pretty much wide open. even when i canoe the river, i usually dont see more than one other fisherman the whole stretch. and there are some MONSTER bass and snook in there.
Fishing is so/so in that area unless you have a boat. Fished the imperial for a few hours with nada. If you want to get into some quality fish on a consistent basis try dog beach out on lovers key, that was my honey hole when I lived down there. Lots of big sharks out there too, however the nazi Florida law enforcement will run you off the beaches after dark, drove me nuts.
At any rate if you have a canoe try cast-netting some big frisky shiners and drifting them under a float, as you said lots of Big Snook and a few Juvenile Tarpon in the Imperial, along with your pig LM.
ive fished the cove behind dog beach via kayak a couple times. got into some smaller sized reds, some sheephead, and some small trout back there. never ventured back into lovers key though, never wanted to pay the money to get in. haha. ive actually had pretty good luck on the imperial. i usually float the stretch between US41 all the way to my parents, which is about a mile inland of the Old 41 bridge.
i actually caught these tarpon at new pass at the beach across from dog beach. in the summer, when the tide starts incoming towards sundown, there's a ton rolling in the pass.
Yea I take it you got out there with the canoe? I always wanted to fish the pass right @ the beach but never could get out there as I didn't have a boat .
Did pick up some nice sharks from shore though, all these came from Dog Beach.
yeah, we actually beach my buddy's boat there on the other side. i did it once with a kayak and almost got swept out to sea. never again. i actually saw some kids swimming from dog beach to the other side--no life jackets or anything. very dumb, because the current absolutely rips through there. we even warned them on the boat, but they didnt care. those are some awesome sharks though...bet it will make people think twice about their dogs being in the water. hahaha. are those bulls or lemons or something else? im not too good at identifying shark species.
1st one is a sandbar 2nd one is a lemon. Caught Sandbar's Lemons and Bull's out there. Actually funny how I first found out they were in there, I was wading and hooked into a nice Sea Trout. It came up and did it's little surface dance and a big old Bull Shark just annihilated it about 4 feet in front of me . Got back 1/2 of the Trout and promptly pitched it right in the same spot, within seconds the Shark doubled back and grabbed the rest, then spooled me in about 10 seconds lol. Like hooking into a little Honda going 45mph down the road....SEEEYAA~!
And we never caught much flak from the dog-beach goers as the Sharks never really became active until sunset when the beach closes and everybody has cleared out. Also helped that I brang my dog with me most every time we went out, her she is checking out a shark like "what on gods earth is this thing"
that's hilarious! but there's no way in hell i would stick around in the water if a bull shark was 4ft from me....too many horror stories with those things! also, on the same side as dog beach more towards the inlet, ive seen some massive snook come from around all that dead timber. apparently its a hot spot, since theres always 3 or 4 boats covering the stretch...i know a fishing guide there, and he said theres some bull reds in that stretch too.
Yea I know that spot, I've always dreamed of fishing it but was always stuck on shore. Florida is misleading, it is the BOAT fishing capital of the world, NOT the fishing capital. I mainly hit up that trench @ dog beach for Sea Trout and Smaller Snook, especially in winter. There were days in January/Febuary where you could catch them every cast for hours on end, big slob Trout too.
that's the main problem im having right now in clearwater. i cant find ANYWHERE to fish without a boat. the only land spot to fish is the park by me, and from what i told, the only thing to expect is catfish. there's also the skyway piers, but i dont have the tackle to support that, and i dont really like live bait fishing compared to lures. i have yet to wet a line since ive moved here.
SWFL freshwater/brackish fishing
SWFL freshwater/brackish fishing
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. Got back 1/2 of the Trout and promptly pitched it right in the same spot, within seconds the Shark doubled back and grabbed the rest, then spooled me in about 10 seconds lol. Like hooking into a little Honda going 45mph down the road....SEEEYAA~!
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