Marco Island, Ft. Myers & Boca Grande
Capt. Scott Hughes
May 24, 2001
Fort Myers - Saltwater Fishing Report
Tarpon or Snook? You'll have to choose.
Most of my time for the next month or so will be spent around the Ft Myers to Boca Grande area tarpon fishing. We have also seen a resurgence of large tarpon out of Marco Island since my last report. Also, I have been fishing on the East Coast out of Stuart for snook. The traveling is wearing down my body but the fishing has been good enough to keep the adrenaline pumping for a week at a time and then I’ll crash for a couple of days.
Literally thousands of tarpon are in and around Boca Grande Pass right now. These fish aren’t there to eat though. They are getting ready to spawn and food isn’t a major priority. If you’re persistent though, you can hook-up most days. There hasn’t been any specific bait that has been producing better than another hasn’t. Thread herring, crabs, mullet, ladyfish, pinfish and squirrel fish are all good choices.
Snook are in the rivers that lead to the major passes and sardines are my live bait of choice. Small snook tend to hang out on the beaches early in the summer so to get the big females you’ll need to fish the deeper channels.
The best snook fishing that we have to offer is at night. Snook are a nocturnal feeder and under the light of bridges and docks are good places to look for them. Last night a buddy of mine and I were out for a few hours and landed 15 nice snook and a jewfish with live sardines. Eight of the 15 were fat snook and the rest were the common snook. Most people don’t realize that we have 4 species of snook in Florida. One of the fat snook that I caught was over 5-pounds. That’s only a few pounds under the world record. The common snook is the only species that grows to sizes up to 30 or more pounds.
Trout fishing is the best that I have ever seen out of the 10,000 Islands. When we have tried we have limited out on trout between 18-26 inches. Small live sardines and large herring have been producing the excellent results. Most of the trout have been by catch while we are tarpon fishing. Hit the grass flats with about 5 feet of water just south of Cape Romano.
Other fish of note this week were permit, and cobia. The permit are still offshore of the 10,000 Island and a few cobia are off the beaches south of Boca Grande Pass. Sharks are all over the shoals of Cape Romano and Pine Island Sound.
Good Luck!
Capt. Scott Hughes
Blackwater Charters
863-946-9171
www.blackwatercharters.com
[email protected]
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