Pine Island, January 2009

I jumped on a plane last Wednesday to spend a week with my family up in Florida. I left an 85 degree Vieques and woke up to a 35 degree Pine Island the very next morning. I actually saw frost for the first time in over a decade.

The extreme cold was both a treat and a curse for my week in Florida. A morning of frost is nothing compared to what the rest of the country is experiencing these days. At least we didn’t wake up to a couple feet of snow or a crippling ice storm. Our biggest problem was the quick plunge in water temperatures that turned the flats species of Southwest Florida into lock jawed aggravation.

Despite the cold, the mangrove creeks surrounding Pine Island Sound were loaded with fish. I never saw so many snook, trout, and redfish in one morning as I did last Monday. Unfortunately, every one of them had us figured out before we could get close with a fly. A couple hundred perfect casts under the mangroves resulted in one briefly hooked snook, and even that didn’t last long.

There are really no surprises about this. We were seeing water temperatures in the fifties last week and that’s cold enough to kill some species. A big cold weather fish kill happened last New Year‘s in the Keys. With such a quick plunge, Southwest Florida’s fish will bunch up in the shallows where they’ll warm up quicker while staying aware of any intruders. In last week’s case, the intruders were myself and a friend on a high tech Maverick flats skiff.

On one positive note, the ladyfish were everywhere, despite the weather, and could be caught with abandon. If you don’t mind getting your boat covered in ladyfish goo, the next cold front that will hit Pine Island this weekend will be a gold mine. So get out there and catch something.