How's Fishing?The Answer,My Friend, is Blowing in the Wind-SWFL
Capt. Dave Hanson
March 22, 2008
Fort Myers - Saltwater Fishing Report
High winds were the theme on Monday, 3/17 so I stayed close in at the artificial reefs with Jay and Ellen Andreoletti. Still, we had three to four foot seas and it was choppy for the duration of our trip. We had a good morning of fishing, though, with live shrimp. We got into some cobia and released two of those at 30 inches and 31 inches. We lost one larger one too, after it ran the line out and broke off on bottom. We also caught four keeper mangrove snapper, a keeper sheepshead and a porkfish. We released gag grouper shorts. Overall, we had a productive and fun morning of fishing, despite the rough conditions.
Tuesday, winds blew even harder, seas got even rougher, and the bay remained bone-dry. I cancelled my fishing plans and hoped the wind might die down by Wednesday, but the wind howled all week long and Thursday morning also brought some rain along with the winds.
By Friday, the winds were still strong but at least they had shifted direction and the water level in the bay was better. Lee Larsen, son Kyle and friends Steve and Bud traded their gulf fishing plans for the backwaters. Lee caught a keeper redfish at 19 inches and we also got a pair of 13 inch sheepshead on shrimp. We released smaller sheepshead, snapper and cravalle jacks.
Saturday morning was the calmest we'd seen for a couple of weeks but there was a lot of rain out over the water. My anglers that day included a few young children and they didn't want to risk wet weather so we ended up calling that trip, making the total week's tally two out of six. This is not an unfamiliar story for the month of March but is nonetheless frustrating. There's always next week…
The photo shown is of a pretty 15 inch hogfish, caught by young angler Katie Koscher on shrimp on a recent offshore trip.
Fort Myers Fishing Forecast:
Winds and seas have been relentless. Calmer conditions are expected this weekend but winds are forecast to pick up to 20 knots again by Monday. Hopefully, the wind direction will push some water into the backwaters rather than suck the bay dry so we can at least get some good inshore fishing.
More Fishing Reports:
