Marco Island, Ft. Myers & Boca Grande

Capt. Scott Hughes
March 2, 2003
Fort Myers - Saltwater Fishing Report

Jacks and Sharks!

This week was spent fishing out of Chokoluskee and Marco Island. The water has warmed into the 70's and live bait has moved into the area and some of the big preditors are already here.

Jacks dominated our catches out of both areas. They have been good sized with most being over 4 lbs and up to 10 pounds. They have been taking live sardines, plastic jerk baits and flies. Try fishing the deep rivers and rocky points.

Sharks have also moved in following the bait. We caught bunches of blacktip sharks offshore of Everglades City and hooked some big bull sharks south of Chokokuskee. We used sardines and thread herring for the blacktips and live mullet for the bulls.

Snook and redfish also are becomming more active. We haven't been catching great numbers of snook but the live baits are producing big fish. All of our snook this week were over 30-inches and most were over 10-pounds. A scattered redfish or two have been comming from the same areas. They have been in the 22-25 inch range.

Very large spanish mackerel were running in the same areas as the blacktips. We caught 7 one day and smallest spanish was 26-inches. We even caught a couple that were well over 30-inches. All were caught on live herring.

The fishing report should improve with every week this month. I saw a few tarpon this week but not enough to target. I have heard reports of some being caught. Snook fishing will get better as the water warms. For the next 9 months live bait fishing will be the norm for my trips. That usually means that we will have slightly less numbers but way bigger fish.

Good Luck!

Capt. Scott Hughes

Blackwater Charters

941-628-4247

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