Hank and I are doing various maintenance chores today, including changing the oil.
We’re getting ready for the rest of the week.
I thought I would link to some of my favorite Hank youtube videos …
Sanibel Sunset … Look For The Green Flash
Fair winds and following seas,
Captain Joey Burnsed ~ call 239-472-8658 or email captjoefred@gmail to book a charter.
HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY!
Fair winds and following seas,
Captain Joey Burnsed ~ call 239-472-8658 or email captjoefred@gmail to book a charter.
People often ask me for advice how to catch redfish around Sanibel and Captiva …
Redfish were a staple of fishing years ago. Now they’re tougher to find in the last 3-4 years.
If you are looking for redfish, you want to try mangrove shorelines and oyster beds an hour before high tide, the 30 mins during, and an hour after high tide (please see tide info for this coming week listed below).
You can use cut bait, like ladyfish, spanish sardines, or mullet. Live bait also works, such as pilchards, shrimp, and pinfish.
Try to find an area where the wind and tide are moving in the same direction. Fish a spot for 15 minutes, then move down a hundred yards or so. Keep moving until you find fish.
When you find fish, don’t go back day after day. Keep moving and looking for more spots. This will enable you to learn about different places and conditions and develop a portfolio of a variety of fishing holes.
You will find some areas are better on certain winds and tides, and others on slightly different conditions. Always take note of the tie and wind conditions, because fish in the same spot will behave very differently depending on conditions.
Redfish like water depths of 3 – 4 feet. If you are trying for redfish at low tide, try the outter edges of large grass flats. Look for white sand holes to toss your bait into.
You can also try fishing the inlets with pinfish. Inlets are usually best on an outgoing tide.
Other strategies include trying around docks or drifting down shorelines with the current.
Redfish have to be between 18″ and 27″,. but they’re best for eating on the smaller side.
I usually release anything over 25″; they are not the best for eating and are less than 1-2 years from being mature fish and good breeding stock.
Here’s the tide outlook for the coming week. I like to plan my redfish strategy, what places and when, in the context of the tides. You can too – it just takes practice and continuous learning.
Monday 05-30-2011
Sunrise 6:36 AM EDT, Sunset 8:16 PM EDT
Moonrise 4:46 AM EDT, Moonset 6:31 PM EDT
High Tide: 1:40 AM EDT 1.3
Low Tide: 4:59 AM EDT 1.1
High Tide: 11:29 AM EDT 2.1
Low Tide: 7:02 PM EDT -0.1
Tuesday 05-31-2011
Sunrise 6:35 AM EDT, Sunset 8:17 PM EDT
Moonrise 5:28 AM EDT, Moonset 7:27 PM EDT
High Tide: 2:32 AM EDT 1.3
Low Tide: 5:25 AM EDT 1.2
High Tide: 11:58 AM EDT 2.3
Low Tide: 7:41 PM EDT -0.2
Wednesday 06-01-2011 New Moon
Sunrise 6:35 AM EDT, Sunset 8:17 PM EDT
Moonrise 6:15 AM EDT, Moonset 8:22 PM EDT
High Tide: 3:20 AM EDT 1.3
Low Tide: 5:48 AM EDT 1.2
High Tide: 12:30 PM EDT 2.3
Low Tide: 8:20 PM EDT -0.2
Thursday 06-02-2011
Sunrise 6:35 AM EDT, Sunset 8:17 PM EDT
Moonrise 7:06 AM EDT, Moonset 9:16 PM EDT
High Tide: 4:07 AM EDT 1.3
Low Tide: 6:16 AM EDT 1.2
High Tide: 1:06 PM EDT 2.4
Low Tide: 9:01 PM EDT -0.3
Friday 06-03-2011
Sunrise 6:35 AM EDT, Sunset 8:18 PM EDT
Moonrise 8:03 AM EDT, Moonset 10:06 PM EDT
High Tide: 4:49 AM EDT 1.3
Low Tide: 6:54 AM EDT 1.2
High Tide: 1:47 PM EDT 2.4
Low Tide: 9:43 PM EDT -0.3
Saturday 06-04-2011
Sunrise 6:35 AM EDT, Sunset 8:18 PM EDT
Moonrise 9:02 AM EDT, Moonset 10:53 PM EDT
High Tide: 5:27 AM EDT 1.3
Low Tide: 7:46 AM EDT 1.2
High Tide: 2:33 PM EDT 2.4
Low Tide: 10:25 PM EDT -0.3
Sunday 06-05-2011
Sunrise 6:35 AM EDT, Sunset 8:19 PM EDT
Moonrise 10:03 AM EDT, Moonset 11:36 PM EDT
High Tide: 5:59 AM EDT 1.3
Low Tide: 8:48 AM EDT 1.2
High Tide: 3:26 PM EDT 2.3
Low Tide: 11:08 PM EDT -0.2
Fair winds and following seas,
Captain Joey Burnsed ~ call 239-472-8658 or email captjoefred@gmail to book a charter.
We were back in in Boca Grande Pass for a good part of this morning.
Things continued to be slow. The stronger the tides, the tougher the fishing in Boca Grande.
Tarpon fishing is somewhat counterintuitive to most of the other fishing we do. Most of the fish we target are more active and easier to catch when they are feeding on a strong incoming or outgoing tide. Snapper and tarpon are two of the few fish that bite great when the water is barely moving in the inlets. Fishing for tarpon is generally most productive on nearly slack tides.
So when fishing for tarpon in Boca Grande Pass, it is easier to get bites with a slower tidal flow. Today, the tide was not slow. The current was strong at 1.7 knots around 8:30 AM.
This made for a slow Saturday with few bites for the lady’s professional tarpon tournament held today at Boca Grande. Only a few of the approximately 150 pro anglers were able to hook up a tarpon and weigh a fish in.
My clients fought two nice tarpon this morning, but we never got one to the boat. There are many rock ledges in Boca Grande Pass that enable the fish to cut the line, and that was probably how the two fish broke off.
Tomorrow, Sunday, will be another day of competition for the men’s division. I’m captain of Team Organized Chaos.
Unfortunately, we are expecting even tougher conditions than we faced today. Our strategy will likely be to take the first fish we catch to the scale. We may not get a second tarpon.
Back to today … we moved out of Boca Grande after the morning and had some fun.
This afternoon was great action throwing imitation glass minnow buck tail jigs.
There have been many very small grey back pilchards and large glass minnows moving in from the gulf. We can catch a lot of these very small bait fish, but they are too small to fish on a hook. In a month or so, they will have grown and be terrific bait. In the meantime, we have been using small jigs and they are working very well.
While tarpon were tough today, the other fishing was great. My recommendation is to go out early. Look for birds diving in water deeper than three feet to find fish that are feeding on the schools of small pilchards and glass minnows and cast imitation glass minnow buck tail jigs into the mix.
We caught many jacks, lady fish, trout and mackerel this afternoon. We also fished just inside Captiva Pass on the strong outgoing tide and caught many black nose and black tip sharks with cut up ladyfish.
It may have been tough at Boca Grande this morning, but it was a good day of fishing off Sanibel & Captiva, despite all the holiday boat traffic.
Tight lines this memorial day weekend! Hoping our luck changes for tarpon at Boca Grande tomorrow!
Fair winds and following seas,
Captain Joey Burnsed ~ call 239-472-8658 or email captjoefred@gmail to book a charter.
We left Sanibel Island at 6:45 and passed by Captiva Island on the way to Boca Grande.
We arrived at Boca Grande around 7:15 to see that the tarpon bite was not heavy.
There were only a few fish caught this morning and we were one of few boats to hook up with a tarpon.
After fishing for an hour, we got a bite and battled a tarpon (weighed about 140 lbs or so) for 55 minutes. This fish was an athlete for sure. Here is a video of the tarpon trying to shake the hook: Tarpon at Boca Grande Pass
I’ll be in Boca Grande Pass for the next few days. I hope the bite improves!
Fair winds and following seas,
Captain Joey Burnsed ~ call 239-472-8658 or email captjoefred@gmail to book a charter.
Caught lots of fish! Everything we tried worked today; it was that type of day!
First, we started off by throwing jigs and catching lots and lots of lady fish, trout and spanish mackerel on the bayside of Captiva, near South Seas Resort.
The fish were thick and feeding aggressively. We caught fish every cast.
We moved and fished the beach side of North Captiva, looking for some bigger trout and flounder.
We had plenty of fish for dinner so we decided to go for something even bigger.
There were only a few tarpon around the beach so we decided not to bother with tarpon today and headed 6-7 miles offshore to break up the usual routine and do something different.
We fished over a structure in 36 feet of water and again caught lots of nice spanish mackerel and blue runners.
I dropped a blue runner on a tarpon rod and we caught a 19 lb. kingfish (king mackerel) which fought really hard. We also lost a giant goliath grouper that took us into the wreck.
Another great day of fishing off Sanibel & Captiva.
Fair winds and following seas,
Captain Joey Burnsed ~ call 239-472-8658 or email captjoefred@gmail to book a charter.
A lot of tarpon action today!
Hank and I left the dock at Castaways on Sanibel Island this morning and made a stop on Captiva Island to get some additional tarpon tackle.
We then headed to Boca Grande Pass. We got there about 8:45.
Within 5 minutes of arriving, we hooked up with a tarpon and landed the fish within 5-7 minutes. We got a DNA sample of the tarpon and passed it on to the marine researcher in the pass.
On our second drift, we again hooked up right away, but as soon as the fish came it left by quickly breaking off the line at the hook.
As we got back to it, we were right in the thick of the fish and were quickly doubled up with two tarpon on the line at the same time.
We handed off one rod off to another boat to handle that fish and we focused on chasing the larger of the two tarpons, which we landed and weighed about 130 lbs.
The fish we handed off to the other boat weighed about 115 lbs.
The bite then slowed down and we headed down the beach back toward Captiva and Sanibel.
It was a great day of tarpon fishing!
Fair winds and following seas,
Captain Joey Burnsed ~ call 239-472-8658 or email captjoefred@gmail to book a charter.
Good day today.
Caught sharks, flounder and sea trout on the charter.
Fair winds and following seas,
Captain Joey Burnsed ~ call 239-472-8658 or email captjoefred@gmail to book a charter.
Quiet day today recovering from the tarpon tourney and working on the boat.
Fair winds and following seas,
Captain Joey Burnsed ~ call 239-472-8658 or email captjoefred@gmail to book a charter.
