Marco Island, Ft. Myers & Boca Grande

Capt. Scott Hughes
July 19, 2004
Fort Myers - Saltwater Fishing Report

Dog Days of Summer

We are definitely in the middle of summer in Southwest Florida. Water temps are hovering around 90 degrees and and we are in a drought. The fishing has been ok for the most part. Tarpon fishing is good most days. The fish will feed sometime during the day so full days have usually been successful. Half-day trips this time of year are more comfortable due to the heat but your cutting yourself short when it comes to tarpon. One example last week was a couple that booked me for a half-day of tarpon fishing. We caught bait early and located a school of tarpon off the beach of Boca Grande. The fish weren't in a feeding mood and after a couple of hours my customers decided that wanted to go try for snook instead hopeing to get into some action. It turned out that the snook weren't feed to well either and we ended the morning with only one snook to the boat. After some lunch I decided to go out and try the tarpon again the this time I spotted a nice school of tarpon a couple of miles offshore and hooked up on a 150 pounder. To make a long story short, I ended the afternoon with 3 tarpon landed out of 6 hooked. If my customers would have fished a full-day or even a 3/4 day then the trip would have been great. Instead it was a bust. Oh well, thats the way it goes sometimes when your a guide.

The tarpon are usually farther up the harbor than they are this year. We are having a very dry summer and the lack of fresh water flowing out of the rivers have the tarpon still hanging around the passes. I have been doing well pitching crabs, pilchards and threads to rolling pods of fish mostly offshore a few miles.

Snook fishing is still hot when the winds have been letting us get on the outside. Pinfish are still the best baits going.

Redfishing just started to get better for me today. We caught 3 reds over 33 inches today on cut bait under the mangroves. Live pinfish on a jighead under the bushes are producing some slot size reds as well.

Snapper are moving in more each day. I am finding plenty in the passes and scattered keeper mangos under the bushes. Shrimp and shiners work the best but I've been picking up a few with pinfish.

Trout have been scattered at best. If you put in your time and try a variety of plastics and hit a number of grassflats then your likely to catch a limit of keepers. But the action has been far from "hot".

I have predicted that we will catch more tarpon in July than any other month and sticking to my forecast. I've got to catch 26 more to match Junes numbers so i've got my work cut out for me. Not to worry. Last year, on the 30th we hooked 17 tarpon mostly of which were in the 100 pound class!

Good Luck!

Capt. Scott Hughes

Blackwater Charters

941-575-2389

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