With the conditions at the best we’ve seen in a while the fish were hungry and plentiful. Fishing the mangrove islands of Estero Bay yielded plenty of sheepshead the majority of which averaged out between 3 and 4 pounds with a few topping 5. lots of fun on the light tackle. We were hooking these notorious bait steelers with # 2 aberdeen jay hooks, a small almost wire like hook that the sheeps literally hook them selves on. I highly recommend when targeting these fish to use the medium to small shrimp, they take small bites and this will lead to quicker hook ups. The sea trout were abundant on the grass flats again using shrimp and a popping cork. while fishing the flats we had a couple nice run ins with pompano and jacks. Lots of jacks out there and they’re hitting anything moving. We also found the sea trout to be active in areas of 4 to 6 feet with good moving water. bouncing the bait off the bottom with 1/8th ounce sinker or jig head was all it took. Just keep in mind these trout got a weak mouth so once you hook one keep steady tension on the line but don’t wrench it in. The warmer water this week finally woke some of the reds up. we were finding small slot and rat reds mixed in with the sheeps along the mangroves where there was adequate current.
