BigBendFishing.Net

Hey Guys,
If anyone could help, me and a buddy are going to cape coral this weekend to pick up a new boat for the upcoming flats season ( i'm overly excited!!!!!) However we are going to try and go out and do some fishing just to waste a weekend and test out the new purchase! I have fished the flats around keaton and enconfina millions of times but im a virgin of south florida fishing ( around cape coral, fort myers area) so if anyone could help with what might be bighting now and baits to use i would really appreciate it and will be happy to send them some pics of the trip!!!!

Thanks,
Mike

It has been years since I have fished the area, but we always had success around Pine Island, Matlacha(pronounced MAT-LA-SHAY), and Bokeelia. I hope that gives you a place to start. Good Snook and Red fishing.

I grew up fishing Tampa Bay, and the fishing is a lot different down there. There is a lot more man-made structure and a lot more fishing pressure. The fish have seen most of the artificial lures so, with only a few exceptions, they don't work real well in the daytime. (You can still catch fish on them at night). A few exceptions are a Spittin' Image, a DOA Shrimp, and some of the jerk baits like the Bass Assassin's.

For the most part, the locals fish live greenbacks (spanish sardines), and the bait hole locations are more closely guarded than the fishing holes. Our normal fishing day would consist of an hour or so of castnetting bait, then heading to the residential canals and pitching them up under the docks that had deeper holes beneath them.

In the Winter time, when the live bait got scarce, we would pay the bait shop owners a little extra to save us some select shrimp (8 inches long or so). Then we would do the same thing with the large shrimp that we did with the greenies.

If you don't have a lot of time to investigate all of this, I would suggest getting help from a local fishing forum or bait store in Cape Coral. We mostly fishied for snook and reds. If you can find some deeper holes with rocks or structure in them there will also be a winter time bite from the sheephead and snapper.

Good luck - fishing down there is not as easy as it is up in this area.
- Steve Stinson

THE AAREA AROUND PINE ISLAND, ANY DEEPER HOLES ON THE FLATS, CANAL MOUTHS, BOKEELA AND ANY OF THE CUTS BACK OUT TO THE GULF, INLETS WHERE THE WATER IS MOVING PRETTY GOOD. EVERGLADES CITY , TEN THOUSAND ISLANDS, SHARK RIVER ARE ALWAYS GOOD, NO WAY THIS AREA COULD GET OVER FISHED, PEOPLE TODAY ARE TOO THIN TO SCRAPE THROUGH THE MANGO TREES AND ROOTS TO GET TO THE FISH.
PA THE OLD MAN

Thanks everyone for the helpful info and all we can do now is just try it, but at least now i know where to start! Im sure i can scoop up some frozen bait or maybe some shrimp somewhere and just try to drown 'em! hopefully we will stumble upon something! And once again thanks! ANYONE ELSE FEEL FREE TO COMMENT!

- Mike

It would be hard to beat a 1/4-oz Slayer jig with artificial shrimp if fluke (jerk bait); with and without popping cork. Slayer's in-line spinners are great, too.

http://www.slayerinc.com

Stock up at Kevins' in Tallahassee or Southern Georgia Outdoors in Cairo.

http://www.kevinscatalog.com/

South Georgia Outdoors
260 4th Street Southeast
Cairo, GA 39828-2758
(229) 377-4868

Strongly consider a 3/8-oz weedless spoon by Mike Hakala of Aqua Dream Living.
http://www.aquadreamliving.com