Fishing in the 10,000 Islands can be magical, but it’s best to have a guide

The 10,000 Islands at the southern end of Collier County in Southwest Florida can be a magical place to fish.

Figuring out where to go is the biggest challenge because so many of the mangrove islands in the watery wilderness look like they must have fish. That’s why those new to the area should first go out with an experienced guide like Capt. Kevin Bellington of Sea Gone Fishing (seagonefishing.com).

“If you can’t find anyplace to fish out here,” Bellington said, “you’re not trying very hard.”

This section of the islands, which are fronted by the Gulf of Mexico, are home to a variety of fish, including snook, redfish, sea trout, tarpon, flounder, sheepshead, pompano, Spanish mackerel, mangrove snapper and black drum.

Bellington, who once had a trip that produced 22 different species, apparently knows several thousand of the 10,000 Islands, which can be easy to get lost in if you’re not paying attention. He also knows what the tides are doing, because a bay or creek that has plenty of water at high tide can have your boat aground at low tide.

He joked that there are two types of boaters in the 10,000 Islands — those that have been stuck and those that haven’t been stuck yet.

“If you get with a guy who says he’s never been stuck in 20 years, get off the boat,” said Bellington, “because he’s either a liar or he’s due to get stuck.”

Bellington attracts stares from other boaters because he fishes the shallow inshore waters in a 28-foot Mako. The reason Bellington has such a big boat is he also runs offshore trips into the Gulf for grouper, snapper, cobia and African pompano. He also offers shelling trips on island beaches and sight-seeing trips.

For inshore fishing, the standard bait is a live shrimp suspended by a popping cork. When the cork is splashed on the surface, the sound attracts gamefish who think there’s a feeding frenzy going on.

That’s an effective fish-catcher for Bellington’s customers, but he also fishes live shrimp on a modified Texas rig, similar to how bass anglers fish a plastic worm. Using spinning outfits with 20-pound braided line and three feet of 25- to 30-pound leader, Bellington slides a quarter-ounce worm sinker on the leader followed by a plastic bead and ties the leader to a Mustad 3/0 long shank offset hook. He inserts the hook in the tail of the shrimp and threads it through the body so the hook point exits the bottom of the bait by its legs.

The rig is especially good when fishing oyster bars in water that might be only 18 inches deep. Bellington gently twitches the bait over and across the oyster bars, which avoids snags and attracts snook, trout and redfish that hang out around the bars.

“The fish see the shrimp walking away and they can’t resist it,” said Bellington. “Everything in the Gulf of Mexico will eat a shrimp. Most of my customers, they just want to tug on something.”

That’s sounded good to me, especially given the recent cold fronts that had canceled a couple of trips. And the timing was critical because I was meeting up with my old buddy George McNeilly.

I worked with McNeilly, who has covered Olympics, Super Bowls and NASCAR for radio and television, when he was in charge of communications for the Bass Angler Sportsman Society after it was purchased by ESPN.

When ESPN sold BASS, he started McNeilly Communications, and was in Naples for the LPGA’s season-ending golf tournament on behalf of Aon. The company sponsored the inaugural Aon Risk Reward Challenge on the LPGA and PGA tours and McNeilly had chronicled the reaction of an emotional Carlota Ciganda a few days earlier when she received $1 million for winning the challenge.

After that hectic start to his week, McNeilly was ready for some fishing. Naples is about a 40-minute drive from Goodland, which Bellington said has four bars, no gas stations, no grocery stores and bills itself as “A quaint little drinking village with a fishing problem.”

We met Bellington at Calusa Island Marina at 9 a.m. to give the water a chance to warm. Even with the later start, Bellington said it might still take a while for the fish to bite. Water temperatures were in the high 60s, and 70 degrees would get the fish in the mood to feed. But McNeilly defied the thermometer by quickly catching and releasing a sea trout on a Texas-rigged shrimp, then he released a redfish and a whiting.

As the water temperature rose, the fishing got better. Bellington took us to a bunch of spots, where the three of us caught more trout and redfish, plus mutton, lane and mangrove snapper, jacks and catfish.

It was exactly the type of fun and relaxing island adventure that McNeilly and I were hoping for, and Bellington didn’t even have to try that hard.