Marco Island, Ft. Myers & Boca Grande

Capt. Scott Hughes
April 27, 2002
Fort Myers - Saltwater Fishing Report

Fishing has been Excellent!

I finally took a day off and came back home to get some things done and get some rest. As most of you know, I have living down in Everglades National Park running charters out of the 10,000 Islands and Marco Island for the past two months. I don't have internet access down there so the reports have not been updated. Well the fishing has been very good. I have fished 27 out of the last 30 days and I think that we only had two bad days and we hooked a tarpon on each of those days. The tarpon fishing this year has not been as good as in the past but we are still hook a couple over 100 pounds almost every day. I did have 5 days in April when we didn't hook a tarpon but that was because the winds were blowing 20-30 knots out of the west. We did salvage the trips by catching plenty of trout snook and redfish.

Tarpon are in the middle of there migration toward Boca Grande and Tampa Bay and they can be caught from Everglades city north to Pine Island. Thread herring and scaled sardines have been the best producers. With the water temps in the mid 80's already I woould expect the majority of the tarpon to be past Marco and the fishing to be getting stronger in Charlotte Harbor.

Snook have already started moving out on the beaches and outside points of the islands of the 10,000 Islands We have been catching up to 25 snook per day when we have targeted them for and entire day. About 1 out of 5 have been in the legal slot of 26-34 inches. This May is catch and release only on the west coast for snook. If you want to keep them, the east coast is the place. They're season is open for another month.

Trout have been thick south of Marco Island. We have been using live sardines and we have not caught a fish under 17 inches in over three weeks! When I have targeted trout for any amount of time we have been able to catch at least three limits of trout 18-24 inches.

Other species that we have been cathing have been jack crevelle and redfish. Both have been showing up while we are targeting snook and trout. The redfsih have been on the small side and the jacks have been running 4-7 pounds.

I have three more weeks down in the 10,000 Islands and then the reports will start to get back to normal. At that time most of my charters will be in the Pine Island Sound and Charlotte Harbor areas.

Good Luck!

Capt. Scott Hughes

Blackwater Charters

941-628-4247 cell

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