The Fishing of Pine Island

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Fishing on Pine Island is without question the single most important reason for the continuous growth of the area. You would be hard pressed to find an area with as large a variety of game and food fish as the Pine Island area waters. At the very beginning however, PineIsland.Net wishes to remind everyone who visits this site that the fisheries of Pine Island are not a bottomless pit. If you spend more than you earn you will run out of money. If more fish are removed than are reproduced we will run out of fish. Plain and Simple. There are many different types of fishing in Pine Island. We are blessed with huge expanses of what are called 'Flats'. These flats are the nursery grounds to a large variety of fish, crustaceans, invertebreas, molluscs, planktons and other marine organisms. They are also a huge feeding ground for Redfish and Trout, and to a lesser extent, Tarpon, Snook and Shark.

If you are a fly fisherman (or woman) this is an area that will receive a lot of your attention. The fish in these areas will strike a large variety of baits. The usuall suggestion of 'matching the hatch' applies here as with anywhere. Baits resembling shrimp, crabs, small fish etc... all produce the desired results. Whether it's live bait, lures or flies, the flats are sure to produce action when everything else fails. (Click on the Tarpon or Snook for 'A Fish Story') Look for breaks in the grass such as sandy patches or holes. These patches usually indicate a deeper spot or depression which often times holds fish in it or around it waiting to ambush anything crossing it. An other place to fish is the edge of the weedlines where it drops off into deep water. These changes in enviroment are always popular foraging areas for Trout and large variety of other gamefish. In addition to the flats fishing, another popular type of fishing is done where the 'Mangrove' trees meet the shoreline. This type of fishing is particularly popular with the Snook and Redfish fisherman. Snook are notorious for hiding in and around the mangrove root system waiting to ambush their prey. A popular technique is to find a some mangroves with water at least three feet deep at their edges and cast a live Pinfish or other local baitfish up along the edges of the roots. A Gold Spoon and Rubber Shrimp or Fish are popular lures as well and have the advantage of being able to be fished in water only a one to two feet deep.

The Redfish are cruising these same waters feeding on the crabs that take refuge in and around those same roots. The same baits that work for Snook work well for Redfish although the Gold Spoon is clearly a favorite around Pine Island for Redfish. Be prepared to loose more than your share of hookups as the Snook are quite aware of how effective a line cutter a barnacle encrusted mangrove root is and ninety percent of the time will make a beeline run for those roots. Your first line of defense must be to put immediate pressure on the fish and try to get the fish to do battle in open water. Unfortunately for you and fortunately for our fish there are thousands of acres of mangrove forests in and around Pine Island and much of it holds nothing but Oysters. As a result working the mangroves can end in frustration until you put in enough time on the water to determine which mangrove edges produce the fish. Once you find them though you can usually depend on a good fishery again and again so don't tell anyone! PI.Net

The Fishing section will be expanded substantially