Pine Island Sound may pump out more seatrout per acre than anywhere else in Florida.

Dave Gibson eased the boat in across the flat and quietly lowered the anchor. He dipped out a net full of greenbacks from the livewell, squeezed a big handful to stun them, and dropped them into a cut-off whiffle ball bat. Then he stepped up onto the bow and slung the baitfish in a scattering swath into the pothole 20 yards in front of the boat. Two of the greenies immediately began swimming in circles on their sides. About five seconds later first one, then the other, disappeared in loud splashes.

“Uh-huh, I thought so,” Gibson said. He poked a No. 2 hook through the back of a greenback, flipped it over near a pile of hurricane debris and quickly hooked up. When he eased the fish over the gunwale it was a 17-inch spotted seatrout.

“Nice one,” I said. “Let’s get some more.”

We were getting started later than we had wanted, but still there were no other boats around. The reason was simple: We had ridden five miles up Pine Island Sound at less than half speed from the Punta Rassa boat ramp in a pea-soup fog. Most of the other boats had left after us and running at cruising speed would have been an invitation to disaster.

Gibson, an 18-year veteran guide on Southwest Florida’s Pine Island Sound, and I were after spotted seatrout, one of my favorite fish and a species hugely abundant in these waters.

According to Dr. Stephen Bortone, biologist with the Sanibel Captiva Conservation Foundation’s Marine Research Laboratory, the shallow waters between Pine Island and the barrier islands of Sanibel and Captiva comprise one of the world’s best spotted seatrout fisheries.

How good is it? Good enough that Bortone, who edited the book Biology of the Spotted Seatrout and prides himself in maintaining a sense of scientific detchment, struggles not to speak in hyperbole when discussing the topic.

The Pine Island Sound trout population, Bortone says, is “orders of magnitude higher than all of the other south Florida counties....We just have tremendous numbers of spotted seatrout coming out of this particular system.”

With funding from the South Florida Water Management District, Bortone is heading a study of seatrout as an indicator of overall estuary health. “What we’ve been advocating is that spotted seatrout are one of the great indicators of conditions in estuaries because it’s one of the few fish that spends its whole life in its home estuary,” Bortone says.

Sanibel local Scott Messinger works mangrove overhangs along high tide shorelines.

Traditionally, SFWMD has been on the short list of many South Florida anglers’ most despised agencies because of its mismanagement of Lake Okeechobee water levels. In recent years, the District has kept the lake at high levels during dry seasons, prompting huge subsequent discharges of fresh water down the Caloosahatchee River, at the southern end of Pine Island Sound. These unnatural surges damage grassflats, oyster bars and the fish populations that depend on them.

At least for now, seatrout are more than holding their own in Pine Island Sound. Bortone cites four main keys to their abundance: “We have high-salinity water, lush seagrass beds, relatively clean water and a lot of invertebrates that trout like to feed on.” This combination of “the right stuff” sustains a first-rate fishery.

The most important factor in the area’s thriving seatrout population is evident not just to marine biologists, but to any knowledgeable angler. “Pine Island Sound has some of the most incredible seagrass beds in the country,” Bortone says. “There may be other places where they’re thicker and denser and larger, but I couldn’t think of any.” The point is underscored by even a casual glance at the chart on the Boater’s Guide to Lee County; the sound is dominated by huge expanses of green that indicate grassflats.

The estuary’s relatively high salinity is ideal for prolific seatrout reproduction during the warm months, usually April through October. Abundant food sources spark growth rates that are the highest in the state, up to 10 inches the first year. “There are not only more of them, but they’re growing faster,” Bortone says.

He says this fact is not inconsistent with reports that some of Florida’s biggest seatrout are caught in East Coast estuaries. In some of those areas, Bortone says, fish may live a year or two longer because of cooler waters. A seatrout lifespan is five to seven years. Typically, a 4-year-old female will be about 18 inches, a male 14 inches.

Thanks to the 1995 Florida net ban, the adoption of closed seasons and reduced bag limits, there are more and bigger seatrout in Pine Island Sound than 10 years ago. Twenty-inch fish are not uncommon, and a Sanibel resident reportedly caught a 32-incher in March.

Some anglers malign trout as poor fighters compared to snook and redfish. But this is generally a factor of size and tackle. On light spinning or fly gear, seatrout over 16 inches acquit themselves very well. Once they get over 20 inches they are even feistier. Add to that they are stunningly attractive fish—though the name is a misnomer (they are not salmonids, but members of the drum family)—and it’s easy to understand why people quickly become enamored of them.

Bortone, an avid angler, agrees that they are an excellent sport fish, partly because they are so readily available. “I usually joke, ‘fishing for the fishing-impaired.’ Just about anybody can go out and catch them,” he says. This makes them the go-to fish for locals trying to show visiting angler friends a good time, as well as the traditional quarry of first choice for Pine Island Sound guides. There is nothing like a couple of hours of fast action on specks to put first-time clients in a tipping mood.

Ralph Allen, who guides out of Punta Gorda, says the trout fishing is topnotch throughout the Charlotte Harbor estuary system (which includes upper Pine Island Sound). This makes it an important resource for his business. “The fishery is good now, and still improving,” he says. “The reason,” Allen opines, “is a combination of the net ban and the changes in recreational fishing regulations.”

Productive fishing spots on Pine Island Sound are too numerous to name them all. But a few are: the grassflats at the mouth of Blind Pass; the oyster island north of Blind Pass; Tarpon Bay and the flat on the outside east side of the entrance channel; the flat at Regla Island; the potholes on the back side of Picnic Island; Foster’s Point flat on the back side of North Captiva.; the east side of the second Sanibel Causeway island; and Panther Key. One of the area’s best spots is also the most easily accessible: the flat and channel at the Sanibel toll booths. Early mornings and evenings on an outgoing tide can produce huge numbers of fish.

As with snook and redfish, seatrout are found in five distinct environments throughout Pine Island Sound: grassflats, channels and cuts, potholes, oyster bars and mangrove shorelines. But for trout the first four are the best bets.

The most productive areas feature a combination of two or more habitat types. For instance, a grassflat sloping off into a deeper channel offers the best of both environments. Also, the thickest grassflats may not produce the most fish for anglers. “They seem to like patchier grass beds...that have patches of sand mixed with grass,” Bortone says. “We think because they can hunt better.”

Trout—especially small to medium-size fish—tend to school up, so where there is one fish there will usually be more.

The author ready to release a typical fish.

In general, good trout action is available year-round. Unlike snook, trout do not get lockjaw when the water turns cold. Some of the best chances for big fish come during the early spawn—February, March and April. These so-called “gator” trout feed voraciously and hit hard when the days start getting longer. Cuts out of the sound’s mangrove estuaries, especially on the Sanibel-Captiva side, are great places to find them. They may be right in under the mangroves, but often the key is the same as for a football wide receiver: If you want to score big, go deep. They may be at the bottom of the channel.

The best depth to fish for specks varies widely, from barely wet flats to 10-foot channels. “They’re all over the place in the water column,” Bortone says.

Also like snook, specks love docklights and the bait that goes with them. This is a kind of sight fishing—casting to moving shadows—that can produce big fish.

A couple of friends and I who love to fly fish for trout have an ongoing debate about bite tippets. In general, less is more and smaller tippets bring more hits. But the fact that trout and snook often go together makes me more inclined to go with a 1-foot piece of 25-pound fluorocarbon on the end of my line.

Good live baits are shrimp, thread herring and scaled sardines. A traditional killer combination is shrimp under a popping cork. The rig works best with long pauses between pops. The sound attracts the fish and they grab the shrimp. Some of the most popular spin-and baitcasting lures in the Sound are white or chartreuse lead-head jigs, gold spoons, floater-divers, topwaters and bucktail jigs. Green-and-white Deceivers, white or chartreuse-and-white Clousers, Crystal Schminnows and copper or gold spoon flies top the list of flies.

The net ban, reduced bag limits and the adoption of closed seasons have helped seatrout populations throughout Florida. As much as Pine Island Sound has benefited from the changes, Bortone feels there is potential here for even better fishing. He says the population used to be even more impressive. “We still have the highest in the state, but maybe an order of magnitude less than what we used to have,” he says. “I would have loved to have seen this 30 or 40 years ago.”