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| Eye-Level Snookerama |
| written by Monte Burch |
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Charlotte Harbor offers great scenery and world-class inshore and offshore angling. | Standing waist-deep in the Florida Gulf battling a 24-pound snook stubbornly bulldogging for the nearest mangroves -- all the while watching for the inevitable rays and sharks as the fish tows you around -- is pure, unadulterated excitement. But it's the order of the day when you fish with guide Frank Bachnik along the Lee Island Coast and Charlotte Harbor areas of Florida. Snook fishing can be exciting in any form, but when you're wading and casting, it's about as exciting as it gets.
Frank has fished the Florida Gulf of Mexico area for over 20 years. He considers an outing disappointing if he and his clients land fewer than 30 snook a day. Fishing out of Port Charlotte, Fla., with Frank, Trailer Boats Editor Jim Hendricks and I literally caught snook until our arms wore out. We caught numerous 3-pounders as well as a good number of 20-plus specimens. We also lost a number of big fish to the mangroves and the myriad of sharp underwater obstacles.
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Stout snook are plentiful around Florida's Lee Island Coast. Late May through June is the best time to go. | The first order of the day, however, begins when you board Frank's 24-foot Tremblay and head for the fishing grounds. Then comes the necessary chore of "making bait," as Frank calls it. A major key to Frank's success is chumming. He tosses "white bait" or scaled sardines into the areas snook frequent, then casts a live-bait rig into the chum. Once snook begin to actively feed on the chummed bait, the action gets fast and furious. But first you gotta have the bait.
Frank adds an unusual "flair" to the usual cast-netting of bait. Out comes a bucket and in goes some water, then a couple of loaves of old bread followed by a can of sardine-flavored cat food. Then it's stir the mixture with your hands and flick the paste overboard. Once the bait schools show up, netting the huge numbers Frank needs for his chumming becomes much easier.
My trip with Frank was my first snook experience, and when the fish blasted my baits and headed for the mangroves, I tried to turn them away, losing one Frank estimated to be well over 26 pounds. "When they head for the mangroves, run with them," suggested Jim Hendricks, who is a long-time snook fan. "The fish will automatically try to fight opposite the direction you pull."
But running in waist-deep water while trying to keep an eye peeled for the "bad guys" of the flats is anything but easy.
Frank's tactic is simple. Head to the numerous "flats" and anchor the boat, then it's overboard and wade the area. The live baits are cast and then free-lined without additional weights or corks. You'll know when a big snook gobbles your bait.
Good-quality medium- to medium-heavy rods are a must. An excellent choice in a spinning rig is the Penn 6-foot, 6-inch Power Graph fitted with a Penn 2000 Power Graph spinning reel. A baitcasting outfit I've found to be excellent is the Quantum Popping Stick equipped with the Lew Childre Speed Spool. Rig with 12- to 15-pound test Stren High Impact monofilament, or Berkley Trilene Inshore, and you're in business.
Although live bait is almost a sure thing, some anglers prefer artificial baits. In this area it's hard to beat MirrOlure twitch baits, stickbaits, prop baits and poppers. After all, they're made and tested in nearby Largo, Florida. Rat-L-Traps are productive as well. Soft plastics such as the Inshore Power Tube or Inshore Fluke from Berkley are excellent choices. Rig the Fluke on a Berkley Gold Point 3/0 hook and fish it without additional weight in typical jerkbait action. A good lure for deeper water is the Berkley Inshore Minnow rigged on an Inshore Gripper jig.
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To tempt snook sulking in the mangroves, try free-lining "whitebait." | Although it's best for first-time visitors to Charlotte Harbor to hire a guide, you can still very successfully go it on your own as well. Snook fishing is good here year-round with the best time from mid-March through mid-October. April, May and June are the best months, when spawning draws the fish in around the passes and the outside deep holes. Lower tides are usually considered the best. Fish the deep passes, river outlets or channels running through the flats from the last hour of falling through the first hour or rising water for the best action.
The Charlotte Harbor and Lee Island Coast areas offer excellent snook fishing, and you really don't have to get your feet wet. There are plenty of good spots along the numerous mangrove shorelines, over the open flats, around bridges, piers, beaches and docks. Or you may prefer drift-fishing the many passes or inlets to the Gulf of Mexico.
For information and to fish with Frank Bachnik, call (813) 321-4873.
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Charlotte Harbor's Got it All
Although Charlotte Harbor is known for it's world-class snook angling, it's also famed for its wide angling variety. Redfish, spotted seatrout, sheepshead, jack crevalle, and mangrove snapper also are plentiful here. September is the prime time for redfishing, and there's fantastic trout fishing in the spring.
Offshore anglers will find lots of shark, grouper, bonito, barracuda, permit, blackfin tuna, cobia, Spanish and king mackerel. All can be caught over the many natural or artificial offshore reefs. Sight-casting to tripletail gathered around floating objects is fast becoming a favorite with anglers. Lee County is also well known for having some of the best grouper grounds in Florida.
Tarpon is one of the world's most sought-after fish, and Lee County annually experiences one of the largest tarpon migrations in the world. From the tarpon-famous Boca Grande Pass to the reefs off Sanibel Island and Fort Myers Beach, silver kings migrate by the thousands during the months of April, May and June. There are some year-round resident tarpon.
Tarpon can be fished in many different ways. In Boca Grande Pass anglers employ a controlled drift-fishing technique with heavy tackle and live bait. It's also the reason Frank fishes out of his 24-foot Tremblay. Not only does it offer lots of room for his clients and a dry, comfortable ride, it will also take on the pass and still be able to negotiate the  shallow flats. Along the beaches of Boca Grande, Cayo Costa, North Captiva, Captiva and Sanibel Islands, as well as the backcountry, anglers pursue tarpon in smaller boats and flats skiffs. There's also lots of freshwater fishing available for boaters all up and down the Lee Island Coast area. Bass, crappie, bluegill, shellcrackers and catfish can be found in the freshwater canals in Cape Coral and the Caloosahatchee River.
A saltwater license is required for non-residents over the age of 16. Separate freshwater licenses are required when fishing freshwater areas. |
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