Pine Island Sound Fishing, Pine Island Sound Light Tackle & Fly Fishing

Pine Island Sound
Fly and Light Tackle Fishing
Pine Island Sound offers the angler a chance to fish some of the most wide open extensive turtle grass flats in southwest Florida. It is a huge estuary that receives its fresh water flow from the Caloosahatchee River. It contains many mangrove islands as well as an eastern shoreline that includes17 miles of basically unspoiled mangrove habitat that holds numbers of tidal creeks. It is however, the extensive shallow flats loaded with healthy turtle grass that makes Pine Island Sound so special. In part, it's the clean Gulf water that flows into the Sound from three separate passes, Boca Grande, Redfish, and Captiva Passes that make this such a healthy estuary. Also, from Redfish Pass to the south to Boca Grande Pass to the north, the spectacular beaches of Sanibel, Captiva, and Cayo Costa are within easy reach on any excursion. These beaches are some of the best anywhere for collecting shells of all kinds.

Because of the clear water and healthy habitat, Pine Island Sound is my favorite place to sight fish redfish. I particularly like the incoming tide when the fish will move onto flats that were previously unreachable to dig and root into the soft mud looking for an easy meal. Many times, we find them tailing under these conditions and a light tackle spinning outfit matched with small diameter braided line and fluorocarbon leader rigged with a soft plastic jerk bait make a great presentation. For fly fishing, a seven or eight weight rigged with a floating line and fluorocarbon leader and small crab imitation work real well.






	Fishing Report Our fishing report covers the inshore/ backcountry waters of Boca Grande, Pine Island & Charlotte Harbor. Be sure to come back and check out what's biting, we update regulary.
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Fall and Winter Redfish and Spotted Seatrout Fly and Light Tackle fishery

Pine Island Sound, and in particular the eastern shoreline from Pineland Marina down to the MacKeever Keys, is one of my favorite places to run the small Maverick skiff from November through February. The eastern shoreline and numerous bayous, cuts, and coves provide decent protection from the consistent northerly breezes. Redfish move back into the bayous and creek systems during the colder periods and move out into the coves adjacent to the open sound during warmer periods between fronts. Trout follow a similar pattern and are usually moving with the redfish. This has been a real good year for mullet and if we find good numbers of mullet we'll find the redfish and trout. In the backcountry, sandy shorelines close to creek mouths generally produce best and out in the coves I like a good mixture of sandholes and turtle grass and an incoming tide. This is a great time of year to throw flies as well as top water plugs. All the Puglisi baitfish patterns work well and I use bendback patterns alot as they are great out in the grass as well as around mangrove structure back in the creeks.

Pine Island Sound Snook on Fly
During fall and winter, looking for more stable water temperatures snook move back into the creeks and bayou systems along the east side and can be found holding on sandy bottom adjacent to mangrove shorelines. Working pockets and holes while poling down a shoreline is typical but in most cases this is a sight fishing situation and it's not unusual to see snook lying up on the sand. Fishing pressure is minimal in these areas so getting a snook to chase down a fly is a real possibility. Around mangrove roots and branches, bendback style flies are a good bet because of their weedless and snag free design. I also like white Dahlberg diver style and Puglisi pilchard patterns.

Pine Island Sound Tarpon on fly

Tarpon fishing over the mixed sand and grass on the deeper grass flats is tough to beat during spring and early summer. Many days, We'll rig a 10 or 12 weight equipped with an intermediate sink tip and larger Puglisi tarpon flies. I like to look for the fish laid up or moving slowly over the sand on the east side in the center of the sound outside Demere Key. . This is a great sight fishing opportunity.

On the whole, Pine Island Sound has so much to offer in addition to great fishing. It's a great place just to enjoy the outdoors. Its natural environment is home to an abundance of tropical wildlife. As far as birds, there are more than 18 active American bald eagle nesting sites. In addition, there are ospreys, herons, roseate spoonbills, the endangered wood stork, egrets, brown and white pelicans, Ibis, hawks, and owls. Within the water, in addition to sighting gamefish, it's also not unusual to see rolling dolphins, sea turtles, sea otters, or the endangered manatee.