Boca Grande on the Fly

[Capt. Pete]

Boca Grande, Fl.
3 Sept.2009
Snook season is open now, but that doesn't mean much to me. I fish them all year and practise catch and release. The funny thing is the redfish are being super active, too. This week I found schools of redfish in Pine Island Sound and near Bull Bay, plus received several reports of catches in the Placida area. Recent trips have produced slot size seatrout and mangrove snapper from grass flats 3 to 6 feet deep where there is good tidal flow. The snook in the back country have been hanging on the points of the mangrove islands. The most productive of these are ones with holes and moving tide. The passes and beaches still hold numerous snook and some solid seatrout.
Roger Maler fished Pine Island last week taking snook and seatrout from the flats south of Captiva Rocks. (See Pic). Bill Gunn, from Melbourne suffered through the "I'm not biting" tarpon before getting driven off the water by seasonal rains. He did manage a few seatrout and hooked and lost a very large redfish in Captiva.
The strong tides we are experiencing will help move the fish a bit. Snook should be more abundant in the back country as the month progresses. Redfish will contiue to school prior to their spawning run. A word on school reds; keep your distance and don't throw in the middle of the school. Pole quietly or drift to the fish. Cast ahead of them and make them charge to fly. Be curteous, others may want to fish the school too.

Fish Hard,
Capt. Pete Greenan
www.floridaflyfishing.com