Alpha and Omega Fishing Charters

Fishing Charters Charlotte Harbor Florida

February WaterLIFE Fishing Report

It’s February and the fishing has been good. We have been catching a large variety of  species on our recent trips. Sheepshead,  mangrove snapper, white grunts, flounder, hog fish, snook, reds, trout, and pompano have been on the hook to keep our guests in awe. Anglers are impressed with how many species we can catch in such a short time. When the wind is not too strong, we can venture out into the Gulf of Mexico and do some bottom fishing, and this time of year the flounder and sheepshead are usually plentiful. There are mangrove snapper, porgies, and grunts too. On one of our recent fishing adventures it was too windy to venture out so we fished inshore around Gasparilla Sound and Bull Bay. There were three gentlemen and we started from Placida Park boat launch. We ventured to our first fishing hole – a spot where we caught a few sheepshead to harvest for a fish fry that these guys were looking forward to. The bait robbers started to nab almost every bait there so it was time to move. With the waters so cool, we began fishing the deeper waters around the docks and other structure where the fish have been hanging. We caught small red fish and small mangrove snapper as we would fish a spot for a short time, and then have to move as the bait robbers would find us. We ventured over to Bull Bay where we rigged for some trout action. The first rig in the water produced a trout on the line. I like to drift across the grass flats and work the baits as you cover lots of area.This has been productive for me and if you get some good catches in an area, crank up the motor and drift that area again.If it is a hot spot, drop the anchor, powerpole, or sticket whatever you have to hold you so you may fish that spot. Lots of time it turns out to be a sand hole or the edge of one where there the trout hide to ambush a passing bait. Sometimes you get reds or flounder out of these holes also and on some occasions you pick up a pompano. The picture that goes with this story is of my three guest anglers, from left to right Lee in his digital camo, Tom in his Realtree camo, and Rob sporting a black shirt. The other photo is of Tom Jones – no not the singer- but Tom’s drag was singing as he reeled in that nice pompano in the picture. That thing gave him a fit it and ended up on both sides of the boat and I told Tom not to let the line touch the boat. Well, he did a great job doing that but somehow the line wound around the motor, so I trimmed up the motor and it freed up the line. Then we got a good look at the fish and realized it was a nice sized pompano. Tom let the fish run a few more times to burn off some of its energy since it was still pretty frisky at this time. Yes, it was harvested for that fish fry that we talked about earlier. This was the highlight of the adventure for all, we fished a while longer and called it a day. The bait of choice was those live shrimp from Fishin’ Franks. This time of year they are very productive on all species. If you would like to come along with me Capt. Bart Marx call me 941-979-6517 or e-mail me at captbart@alphaomegacharters.com or I can go with you on your boat using your gear and instructing you where and how to use your gear. So always remember singing drags and tight lines make me smile. <*(((((>{