Fort Myers Fishing Report - The Bite Is On Don't Miss It
Capt. Eric Anderson
October 15, 2015
Fort Myers - Saltwater Fishing Report
The fishing this weekend should be great for just about anything you want to catch. There are large numbers of ladyfish inshore on the flats mixed in with some small Spanish mackerel and a few bluefish. The speckled trout bite is finally picking up as more of them have moved inshore from the Gulf. This is the best time of year to be on the water the daytime temperatures are pleasant and the chances for rain have gone done down considerably from the summer.
Right now there are literally thousands of Spanish mackerel in the Gulf of about a mile offshore and for pure catching enjoyment they are hard to beat. There are easy to find just follow the birds and you'll be on more Spanish mackerel and you can imagine. The last couple of days there have been school after school busting bait on the surface with abandon. You can cast just about any small crakbait, spoon, or jig into those fish and almost instantly have one on, and if you miss one just keep reeling and another one will happily grab your bait. This is the kind of action that is tailor-made for kids, where catching is the name of the game, it's the kind of fishing trip that they will truly remember. If you have smaller kids who aren't adept at casting just troll a couple of light weight spoons, like a small Krocodile and the fish will be on it instantly.
To give you an idea of just how thick the Spanish mackerel are here is a photo I took of the sonar display on my Lowrance HDS9 . If you look below the major part of the school you will see some larger individual targets near the bottom. Of course I don't know for sure what they were since we couldn't get them to bite probably because they were stuffed full of mackerel. I have been seeing some rolling schools of Tarpon near these mackerel boils so they could certainly be large Tarpon just coming up for mackerel snack every once in a while.
There are a large number of Pompano that have moved inshore to the sand flats near the passes and these fish seem to be bigger than their beach dwelling cousins. Remember to run the flats with your boat and wait till you see the Pompano skip on the surface and then work that area carefully.
Capt Eric Anderson
[email protected]
More Fishing Reports:
