On Saturday November 11th, I was invited by a long time friend to do something I’ve always heard about but never tried before. He picked me at 530 in the morning with no boat, two rods, and a handful of lures. We drove to the far northwest end of Cape Coral, nearly into Charlotte County. From there under the cover of darkness we ignored the alligator warning signs and followed a path of knee and waist deep water into the woods. The sun kept into the morning sky as we wound through this trail covered by a mangrove canopy. The end of the trail opened up to the scenic Charlotte Harbor near Burnt Store Bar.
We waded out towards Burnt Store Bar as the birds and fish woke up with the sun and started moving. We quickly spotted some tailing redfish, a couple of well placed (lucky) casts with topwater plugs and we were both fighting redfish. We kept wading and sight casting to fish, we quickly caught snook and trout too, completing the inshore slam before the sun rose above the mangroves. We spent the next few hours in waist deep water catching snook, trout, and more redfish. We then waded back to the trail, and on the way back saw multiple wild hogs along the edge of the water digging their noses into the mud searching for food. It was an awesome morning with a lot of fish caught, I will be watching the tides to get back out and do it again.
