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Marco Island, Ft. Myers & Boca Grande
Capt. Scott Hughes
October 18, 2001
Fort Myers - Saltwater Fishing Report
Fall Fish'in is Fun Fishing.
We’re definitely in a fall fishing pattern. Run from a cold front every five days or so and kick’em when you can get bait. All in all, fishing has been excellent even when the wind has been blowing. During the cold fronts jigging has been producing good catches of redfish, snapper and pogies (also, known as sheephead). The few times that it has been calm enough to get sardines this week we did very well with snook, redfish, jacks and snapper.
I got out twice this week and the winds were howling both days. We managed to get small sardines and caught plenty of juvenile snook to about 25 inches both days. The area just south of Naples Bay is holding bunches of smallish snook on the points of most islands. On Saturday I fished Frank Ono and his partner Pat and we boated nine snook to 25 inches and the next day I fished with Fred Lieb and we boated 30 snook 18-24 inches. Most of these fish hit scaled sardines and a few hit tipped jigs.
Redfish are still doing very good in the Marco Island area. We have been catching a few on most outings mixed in with the snook. Live sardines have been catching the larger reds to about 10-pounds. Jigs have been catching “rats” with a few larger reds mixed in. Most of my good redfish holes have been overrun with sheephead that hit your jigs before the reds get a chance to eat.
Speaking of sheephead, the return of large sheephead in the backcountry is proof that fall is upon us. As the sheephead fishing gets better, the snook fishing will be getting slower. In any case, the big sheephead are in the 10,000 Islands and if you want a good meal try them out. I think that they taste better than redfish.
Snapper fishing is excellent in the upper 10,000 Islands. When we have been trying, we have been able to get limits of keeper sized mangrove (gray) snapper to 14 inches. Small sardines, jigs and free-lined shrimp are catching plenty.
Jack crevelle in the 4-6 pound class are moving around the outer islands around Naples and Marco Island. Flies, jigs and live bait are catching up to 15 per trip.
Usually this time of year I am still catching some good tarpon south of Marco Island. I have seen a few this month but nothing to get excited about. It’s been hard to pull away from the “action” and go hunting for tarpon. If the wind calms down for five or six days then I think we will see the tarpon action pick up.
Good Luck!
Capt. Scott Hughes
Blackwater Charters
863-946-9171
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 I specialize in light tackle saltwater, and fly fishing from the backcountry of the 10,000 Islands to flats of Pine Island Sound and the bay system of Charlotte Harbor. I have pick-up locations out of Ft Myers, Marco Island, Pine Island, Punta Gorda and Boca Grande. I like to target big fish. During warm months, tarpon, sharks, snook, redfish, cobia, king mackerel and big jacks are the main species sought after. Most of the winter months are devoted to redfish, trout, snook and grouper. Whether
Contact Info:
Blackwater Charters
12571 Burnt Store Rd
Punta Gorda, FL 33955
Phone: 941-575-2389
Alt. Phone: 941-628-4247
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