I fish in the same spots.
I know some really good spots around Pine Island, Lemon Bay, Stump Pass, etc. My buddy lives right along Oyster Creek. I hope to try to do some fishing near Boca Grande pass too.
My stompin grounds brother! VHS '84 graduate, not sayin that in itself mean's anything! ha ha hah a...
Peace River, Myakka, Snook Haven, Roberts bay and up by the RR tressels for snook, Blackburn point, Lemon Bay (awesome trout fishin on the flats there), and of course the infamous Charlotte harbor/Boca Grande.
My sis hooked her biggest snook off the south phosphate docks down there (42 inch). She had hook'd a huge pinfish and was reelin it in when a that snook came up and slammed it. Ran her all over the place and funny thing was, she was using a 8 ft rod with an old German Dam Quick 550 reel.. reel didnt last too long after that! ha ha ha...
I got a bud down there (Ray Gilliland) that uses his 2001 Challenger 20 jet boat to fish tarpon in the pass there. He showed me how to use them tiger stripped soft baits on breakaway rigs. But to be honest I prefer large pinfish for them tarpon...
Yeah, Circus bridge,, been fishin down there since '79. Cool thing is with all the development down there... and with the new bridges they built, the fishin spots are still there (minus a couple rocks).. but I've spent many a year/hour on that stand pipe there to the right of the bridge as a kid.
Your right, excellent shark fishing at Sharky's. My wife and I got married on Beer Can beach there just north of the pier. We use to surf fish the old dog legs (way before the beach renourishment projects) right there. We'd float out half bonita's using balloons and our 9/0 Penns. Lot's of blacktips and hammerheads off that beach, big snook too when the dog legs were there.
Dang,, small world!
Tell ya what, if you get a chance, go to Blackburn point there in Osprey (from 41 turn onto Blackburn point road) heading to the old turn bridge. Just past the turn bridge, there's a small park that's been there forever. There's an unimproved ramp/launch right there we used to put our canoe in. Just north of the bridge, past the first green channel marker, there's a unmarked channel that runs on the left. Drops from 2-3 ft of water down to 8-9 ft depending on the tide. Oyster beds all around and a couple really small mangrove spots. Fish the edge of that channel and you'll catch reds and trout all day long. At night the snook come into there and around them mangroves near the shoreline towards the houses on the back side of Casey key.
Every time I go there, there's never anyone fishing there, and hardly anyone knows about that channel (runs for a good 3-400 yards east to west). When we went down in December for Xmas, I took my boy there so he could catch his first redfish/trout. He managed 2 reds and lost a few. here's a couple pix of his aunt Connie and Uncle Steve taking him/us fishin out on their boat at the "spot"
If ya get a chance sometime down there, check it out. That's my honey hole.
