Sanibel Island FL

Great few days so far. Several snooks caught and released. Fishing is amazing down here right off the beach. Live shrimp=live whiting= big snook!!! Great quality fish this year. This fish are literally caught 10 yards off the beach.

Was down there a few years ago. Didn’t have a chance to fish but would love to. Nice fish!

“Apathy is the Glove into Which Evil Slips It’s Hand”, but really, who cares?

Nice Snook! Never fish Sanibel, I like the Bonita Springs/ Estero Beach area. Great pics!

Ill be down there in a couple of weeks!

We frequent sanibel on a yearly basis. if you haven’t yet, fish Blind pass on the river side of the bridge for trout, reds, flounder, sheeps and mangrove snapper. This time of year, nights are good for snook. Also on the way to the pass, you will see a small canal that goes under the road with two culverts. Excellent place to catch snook & trout. saw a kid catch a small Goliath grouper fishing inside the culvert with a live pinfish. Another good spot is the second causeway on the right, look for the picnic table under a tree and fish straight out. caught nice trout reds and spanish. recommend sanibel cafe for dinner, the grouper basket is awesome. hope this helps. Guys at Whitey’s bait & tackle give very good advice and has turned me on to some other spots. great people. Enjoy.

Don’t they have good scalloping down there? I’m not sure of seasons, etc.

BG

Home Sweet Home- at least it was for the first 25 years of my life. Looks like you got the summertime snook’n off the beach dialed in!..those are some nice linesiders. We used to castnet white bait (pilchards) and sight cast them as they cruised up and down the beach in the trough. Looks like you might not have had clear enough conditions to do that while you were there though. Like saltydog said- we used to also fish the dock lights at night for snook which is a blast. This time of year we would also fish for tarpon right off the beach near Shell Island Beach Club. Ding Darling Refuge was a also a great place to fish. Its nice to to see all that fresh water the Army Corps is releasing into the Caloosahatche River from Lake Okeechobee doesn’t appear to be bothering the snook fishery right now…that is until the next red tide bloom. Hope you all had a great time down there!

btodag- there’s no scallop fishery in SW FL per se. You don’t find them in any size or numbers until to go further north up the gulf coast near the panhandle. They have plenty of delicious stone crabs though!

quote:
Don't they have good scalloping down there? I'm not sure of seasons, etc.

There is great scalloping north of the Tampa area. We’ve been and it is so fun and easy. If you like scallops, it is heaven.

“Apathy is the Glove into Which Evil Slips It’s Hand”, but really, who cares?

Thanks for all of the comments. We have been going down to Sanibel now for over 20 years and the fishing has always been solid. Water quality was poor do to the gulf low that hit Tampa for several days. Roughest we have seen it for any period of time. Last two days were very solid. Caught this big girl yesterday morning before we drove home. Zero white bait in the surf this year. Sea trout were biting good off the beach this year. Anybody that hasn’t been before it is worth the trip. Whitneys is a great bait shop and those guys will help you get on the fish.

Yes the bite is very very very close in there. When i was there a year or two ago, i would get most of my whiting bites there literally a yard or two from shore. Few to no bites further than 5 or 10 yards out. It was flat calm when i was there though. Havent tried for snook there as i kept the whiting. Now i know to try for snook next time!