Yesterday a reltive of mine dropped me off at Lovers key near Bonita Springs.
We where at the park around opening time around 8' o clock.
It was high tide when I walked up to the beach.


View to the beach.

A dolphin was working bait so I figured it would make sense to try the beach first before I
headed to either New pass or Big Carlos pass.



Lizardfish

The first fish species I caught where lizardfish, greedy little critters.
I moved a bit further south along the beach and soon was into Ladyfish.


Ladyfish

There was not that much going on at the beach so instead of waisting time on the Ladyfish and the lizards
I decided to head to new pass.
There where no signs of fish all the way to the pass.


New pass

At the pass the tide was pushing in an nice eddies formed along the shorelines.
Loads of small minnows where hugging the shore and sometimes a snook would run along the edge
and pop bait.


Baitfish along the shore.

Since the shoreline was dotted with fallen Australian pines I knew that fish would be around.
Either Snook or Snapper would be lurking down those dead trees.


Mangrove snapper on jiggy.

Mangrove snapper on gummy minnow


Gray snapper.

I was catching one snapper after the other.
I was fishing a fairly heavy outfit since you never knew what kind of fish you would encounter in this pass.
In the past I had come across large Jacks and even Tarpon so I thought a nine weight would at least be
some sort of insurance against any big fish.
The setup with an intermediate line and a gummy minnow or jiggy worked pretty well during the
first couple of hours into the tide.
I had the T-300 sinking line with me and also used that at times to see if it made a difference.
After the Snappers the Snook came around, the first fish was a stray fish that moved along the beach.


Snook from the beach.

With all the baitfish gathering at the sunken tree I was fishing it could not take long before some predators
would organize an attack on the helpless baitfish.
The attack came and to my surprise it was by a whole school of Snook.
I had never seen this before so it was really exiciting to see twenty or more fish slashing the bait.
Out of this school I managed to catch two fish, after a while they had figured me out and I received no
more hits on the fly from them.



Snook on EP minnow.

Off course there where other blitzes along the inside of the pass so I was able to catch a few
other fish species like Spanish mackerel and off course Jack Crevalle.


Sunken trees at the pass


Jack Crevalle.

When the tide slowed down the bite did also.
Suprisingly several boats anchored at the shore and started fishing the shoreline.
Next to me three guys parked their boat while still having their radio blasting out some
country radio station.
The arrival of the hillbillies must have been a sign of god to take a break so I went back to the
beach and took the tram to the concession stand.
After some cool drinks and a nice cold icecream I headed back to the beach this time to fish
Big Carlos pass.


Big Carlos pass.

The tide was rushing out so I once again fished one of the eddies along the beach to run into
yet more Ladyfish.
My last fish of this day was a needlefish, somehow it had grabbed the streamer I was fishing.



Needlefish.

The needlefish was bright enough to lunge at my had and so he managed to grab one of my fingers.
So once again blood flowed, mine that is.
Disregarding the needlefish incident I had a great day at the pass, many hits on the fly and plenty of
fish landed.
It was amazing to see how many different fish species you could catch in one day, I caught Jacks, Ladyfish,
Lizardfish, Spanish mackerel, Snook, Leatherjackets, Gray Snapper, Mangrove Snapper and Needlefish.
I guess Lovers Key deserves another visit one of these days.