Fort Myers fishing report for April, 2012
Capt. Wes Skinner
April 10, 2012
Fort Myers - Saltwater Fishing Report
It's been a few weeks since I've had some time to catch up on my sleep, gather my thoughts and sit down to write a fishing report. I've been fishing EVERYDAY since the 2nd week of February, so although I've had a lot to report about. I just haven't had the time or energy to put it in black and white. So here we go...
The month of March has brought Fort Myers and Sanibel Island with some of the best weather we've had in years. Beautiful skies with no rain. Perfect for spring breakers and boaters. A little less perfect for anglers. With this great weather pattern comes high pressure, which is usually more difficult for fishing. The fish will still eat but you basically have to put it right in front of them. The theory is that barometric pressure is greater in shallow water (which is where we fish) than deep, probably due to the pressure of the weight of the water in deep water being so high, that the air pressure above it is less significant. A great example would be the experience I had yesterday. We had a cool front come in late evening, early morning before my trip. This weather system brought in a lot of rain and wind. This was the first time in almost two months that the pressure was falling because of the degrading weather. I came very close to canceling my trip because of the rain and wind. The problem was that these guys were driving in from Tampa, just for the day to fish. So I didn't want to disappoint anyone. On the way to the boat ramp, I had a blow out on my trailer, so to say the least it was not off to a good start. I got to the boat ramp late, at 7am and still had to catch bait before I picked my clients up at 8am. All of the other guides canceled their trips for the day except myself and my friend Bruce. Fortunately Bruce didn't have a blow out on his trailer that morning so he was already on the bait. I threw my cast net once and I couldn't even pull the net in my boat because it had so much bait in it. Once I got it in the boat, I emptied it into my live well and the rest spilled out all over the boat. All of a sudden I was being attacked by birds and pelicans. Bruce was just sitting back laughing at the chaos, lol. I started thinking then, that the fishing's gonna be awesome today. I was right. We caught fish all day long. We were still catching fish when it was time to leave. We left with three keeper redfish, four trout and released the snook that we caught (closed until 8/31/12). We caught everything using live Pilchards with 20 pound Power Pro, 30 pound leader and #3 hooks. The tide was really high, so we fished the mangroves because the fish were pushed up into the trees. These boys knew how to fish and pull them right out of the structure.
On to the subject of tarpon. I have been noticing more and more migrating in each day. My first tarpon trip is not until this week. I'm a little leery because I've seen them but not in large enough numbers to really target. I haven't noticed them in the passes yet but I have hooked two under the bridges and one on the flats. Unfortunately I was unprepared to catch a tarpon and we were using light tackle gear. It was fun though. Once I realized what was on the line, I dropped my anchor and put the boat in gear. My client fought the tarpon under the bridge for about 5 minutes, which I'm surprised it lasted that long. It was hooked on a 7 ft medium action St. Croix rod with 20 pound line and 30 pound leader. I was waiting for the line to break at any minute but it just kept going. Finally after the 3rd jump the leader broke about 3 inches up. I thought maybe, just maybe I was going to be able to say we caught a 150 pound fish on a light tackle set up. Maybe one day......
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Target Species:
Snook, redfish, trout, tarpon
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