saltwater roughfishing

[roughfish29]

i spent the last week in fort myers beach, florida. it was a great opportunity to expand my lifelist. i'm pretty sure i got all the id's right, if i got any wrong, help me out

the first day, i went out to the beach and waded out a ways with a bucket of shrimp tied to my waist. the first fish of the trip soon appeared at the end of my line.

ladyfish

but that ended up being the only fish of the day. thes really wasn't a good sign. its cool to get a lifer and all, but the last time we were in fort myers the ladyfish, makerel and leatherjack were biting like mad. so now i had to get clever and try to piece together a puzzle of how i'm going to catch fish.

the next morning, i took a walk down the road to some backwater areas. i saw a manatee and a big trout, but failed in catching anything.

on the way back to the house we were staying in i talked briefly to a guy who was moving in from illinois. the next morning i ran into him again and i asked for permission to fish in the canal in his backyard. i had a follow from a huge snook and i had a few other small bites, but no fish. so i kept trying to piece together the puzzle...

i returned to the canal with some smaller hooks and bits of shrimp. that produced two more salty lifers for me

gray snapper

pinfish

unfortunately the pinfish was badly throat hooked so he became a snack for this guy

my dad also picked up this hardhead catfish

while i was fishing here, i was reeling in a piece of shrimp and it was skimming along the surface. i saw a small fish smack the bait and swim away right under the surface. it looked like a baby longnose gar, only a cool blueish color. they were needlefsih. more pieces....

i came back with a curlytail on a plain size four hook. i spotted a needle swimming in front of me so i cast out and retrieved the curlytail on the surface, i set the hook, didn't connect. so i got the shrimp out again, covered the hook with shrimp meat, and went back to the canal.i missed two more and then i didn't see any so i went to the backwater area where i saw the manatee. after a while of seeing nothing but a school of mullet, i spotted a needlefish. i whipped out a cast and reeled in the shrimp chunk on the surface and the fish attacked it. i had a good view of the fish and i could see that it had not fully taken the bait but was just holding it in its tiny jaws. i waited, and waited, and waited for over a minute before the fish finally had the bait positioned so i could set the hook. and set the hook i did.

the next day we went out to fish under some bridges. we stopped at little carlos pass and i had another follow from a big snook, but didn't connect on anything. so we went off to big carlos pass. the guys next to us caught snook, trout, flounder, and some kinda pufferfish. i managed to pick up one lifer. it put up a pretty solid fight for how small it was, i'd love to tangle with a 10+ pounder

jack crevalle

that night, as we watched the sun set, we tried cutbait in the surf. my dad was completely schooling me on hardhead cats. he tried teaching me how he was catching them, so i tried my best to duplicate. then all of a sudden, i felt a hard smack on the line. i set the hook and the drag started screaming. the hardheads that my dad was catching really didn't take any drag so we knew this wasn't another hardhead.

the fish was making long runs and wasn't shaking its head at all, which had me thinking stingray. but then i saw a tail come out of the water, and then the unmistakable dorsal fin. easily one of the coolest fish i've ever caught

gaftopsail catfish

i'll mention how slimy those things are, after handling one you'd be caked with a snot-like substance that was just about impossible to was off.

i was satisfied for the day. but i made a few more casts and got number 40 for my lifelist

hardhead catfish

the next morning we tried the same thing, and we got tons and tons of hardheads

after having some fun with the cats, we went back to big carlos. my dad hooked into a heavy fish that made some strong runs but no headshakes, another topsail? no, this one was a stingray. as soon as i realized it was a ray i took off my shirt and used it as a cloth to grab the ray and hoist it on shore. it wasn't a big one, 4 pounds or so, but it was [PoorWordUsage] off. its tail (and barb) was whipping all over the place and we had nothing to cut off the barb with. i really wanted a picture, but amongst all the chaos, it didn't happen. we also got to witness the capture of a 30+ pound ray by a guy who was really knew what he was doing, unlike us.

right after that, i got hit. yet another freaking cool lifelister

sheepshead

my dad also picked up this little bonnethead, which was very cool to see

we went back to the beach after that to fish for cats and watch the sunset

my dad picked up a gaftop which also gave him a good fight

i had fun with the hardheads

our next day was our last day in florida. but our flight didn't leave until 8:40 pm. so i went back to the canal and caught two more needlefish.

i'd say the pieces to that puzzle came together quite nicely

[pushbutton]

your only allowed 10 pics i think so i just picked up where the story left off....great post by the way!

the next morning we tried the same thing, and we got tons and tons of hardheads

after having some fun with the cats, we went back to big carlos. my dad hooked into a heavy fish that made some strong runs but no headshakes, another topsail? no, this one was a stingray. as soon as i realized it was a ray i took off my shirt and used it as a cloth to grab the ray and hoist it on shore. it wasn't a big one, 4 pounds or so, but it was [PoorWordUsage] off. its tail (and barb) was whipping all over the place and we had nothing to cut off the barb with. i really wanted a picture, but amongst all the chaos, it didn't happen. we also got to witness the capture of a 30+ pound ray by a guy who was really knew what he was doing, unlike us.

right after that, i got hit. yet another freaking cool lifelister

sheepshead

my dad also picked up this little bonnethead, which was very cool to see

we went back to the beach after that to fish for cats and watch the sunset

my dad picked up a gaftop which also gave him a good fight

i had fun with the hardheads

our next day was our last day in florida. but our flight didn't leave until 8:40 pm. so i went back to the canal and caught two more needlefish.

i'd say the pieces to that puzzle came together quite nicely

[DEADhead]

that is awesome. Nice work Ben!

[popriveter]

Nicely done! I've got 3 Florida trips under my belt and have caught most of those, but never that many species on one trip. I've never gotten a needlefish or jack crevalle. Gettin' jealous!

Thanks for sharing the pics

[popriveter]

And one more thing, those saltwater cats are delicious even though the locals disdain them. I tried them this spring for the first time. Really tasty!

[mainbutter]

I love Ft. Myers and the nearby areas this time of year. The big fish species aren't easy to be had, but there's plenty of other great fishing, great weather, and fun times to be had. Seeing those pictures makes me very much need to make a beach trip.

[TonyKay]

Good stuff man. Thanks for sharing the pics

[RK]

Hiya -

Awesome stuff. I have been to Sanibel a couple times and had a blast fishing the surf. Ladyfish are a hoot, and you can catch trout, crevalle (first time I hooked one I thought "what did I get myself into...") and then fish the backwaters/canals for sheepies (which are fantastic eating) and all kinds of snapper.

Very, very cool on the bonnethead. Never caught one but would love to. Did not know they were down there.

Next time you go, you need to fish sharks off the beach. It's an absolute blast. Catch some ladyfish, cut them up, and put them on a 4/0 circle hook with a 12" wire leader. Go to the outer beaches, like Bowman's or Blind Pass on Sanibel, and bomb it out into the surf. Wait until the line starts to move off (you'll feel crabs pecking at the cutbait, but when a shark picks it up, you'll know...) then reel down and hang on. Evening into early night is best, and I could usually catch 3-4 sharks an evening and be back in the condo by full dark. You get mainly black tip reef sharks and lemon sharks in the 2-6 foot range, but big bull sharks are possible. I did it with a 7' MH spinning rod and 30# braid no problem. Just have a long hook out handy...

Catching sharks on the beach definitely draws a crowd too...

[CarpinMNRiver]

Very cool fish. Looks like a good time.