Despite Wind Fort Myers - Fort Myers Beach Fishing Good
Capt. Eric Anderson
April 11, 2014
Fort Myers - Saltwater Fishing Report
The latest series of fronts that pushed through Fort Myers - Fort Myers Beach the first part of the week (April 7th,8th,9th) brought strong winds first from the Southwest and then from the Northwest. Estero Bay and the backcountry waters south to Naples suffered a double whammy. The strong southwesterly wind muddied up the inshore water, and then a strong northwesterly wind and high seas really churned up the Gulf of Mexico and that dirty water came with the inbound tide. The fishing is holding up remarkably well despite the weather, and we've been catching decent numbers of nice trout with the occasional Redfish or Snook mixed in.
If you've been reading my fishing reports you know that my clients prefer using lures which can make it more difficult to get a strike in dirty water conditions. It is important to remember when fishing dirty water to slow your presentations way down. The fish may be active but the reduced visibility significantly shortens their strike zone.
Baits that produced well yesterday were gold spoons with a small chartreuse 1" twister tail on the hook to add some color. Popping corks with either a Gulp shrimp in nuclear chicken, or a Strike King Saltwater Rage Shrimp in pumpkin with a chartreuse tail. The Strike King baits are made of the same super stretchy Elaztech material as the ZMan Baits and it is virtually indestructible. MirrOdine's in the gold luminescence color also produced well. The trait all these lures have in common is that you can fish them slowly and still be able to cover a decent amount of water in a short period of time. Gold seems to be more visible to the fish in off color to dirty water conditions than silver is.
The key yesterday was not spending much time in any one area, once we covered a shoreline or an oyster bar and didn't have any strikes we moved on. If there were active fish present we usually got a strike on the first or second cast. So the next time your out in off colored or dirty water conditions be sure to slow your retrieve speed down by 1/2 and go up from there. The fish will let you know the right speed when you start getting strikes.
Capt. Eric Anderson
239-330-2427
What A Hawg Charters
Fort Myers-Fort Myers Beach
Fort Myers Fishing Forecast:
Look for the Tarpon bite to explode in the back country, passes, and beaches as the water in the gulf clears. There are large numbers of Tarpon holding offshore and they will move to the beaches as soon as the wind calms and the water clears.
Target Species:
Trout, Snook, Redfish
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