A little bit further along the coast you will come to the Cape Coral,
Fort Meyers, and Punta Gorda area of Florida. This location
is dominated by Cape Coral and the unique canal fishing available
there. Cape Coral is a city that has hundreds of miles of
saltwater canals, all leading to the Caloosahatchee River.
These canals are loaded with Redfish.
When fishing the canals you will notice it is a different kind of
fishing for Redfish. The water is much deeper, about eight to
twelve feet deep on average. In these locations the Redfish
has adapted and displays a completely different pattern of
behavior. They have learned to relate to docks. In
Cape Coral almost all of the houses have a seawall along the canal
system. These houses of course have docks and boats so their
owners can enjoy the river and ocean. The entire food chain
exists around these docks. Bugs, small fish and crustaceans
and large predatory fish all call this area home. Redfish in
particular use these docks as ambush positions.
There are a few keys to dock fishing for Redfish. Live bait
is the best if your sole goal is catching the most fish. A
large shrimp is best for quantity of fish and a pin fish works best for
the largest fish. You want to place your offering right next to a dock
and simply wait for a Redfish to slam into it.
Generally the first move a Redfish will make is to take the bait away
from the dock and eat it. Once hooked however it will quickly try to
break the line on the dock. You must have a rod with the
backbone to horse a fish away from a dock quickly when fishing in Cape
Coral.
To get the full "Florida Redfish Fishing Locations And Strategies" article you'll need to download it here.