Marco Island, Ft. Myers & Boca Grande

Capt. Scott Hughes
September 21, 2004
Fort Myers - Saltwater Fishing Report

Red Drum & Black Drum!

After almost five weeks of bad weather and very little guide business things are starting to change. The weather gave us a break this week and the bookings followed shortly after. I'm far from "busy" but at least I have a reason to get out on the water. The fishing last week was good for the most part. The water in Pine Island Sound and Charlotte Harbor is very fresh from all of the runoff from three tropical storms and normal afternoon showers. This water flow has made the bait fishing somewhat difficult due to the lack of sardines. Pinfish on the other hand are everywhere and are effective most of the time.

Redfish are usually the main target this month in Pine Island Sound and this year is no different. The large schools of bull redfish that we were finding before Hurricane Charley are nowhere to be found now. There have been plenty of slot sized fish but the oversized bulls are not here. I suspect that the runoff from the storms have pushed them out of the harbor. For the slot fish we have been using pinfish or cut bait near what's left of the mangroves on high or low tides.

We experienced a rare but exciting event this week. We happened upon a huge schools of black drum offshore. I assume that they were probably getting ready to spawn. What surprised me is that they were hitting soft plastic baits. Normally black drum only eat crabs and other crustations. We spent about 3 hours fishing the school and landed 15 or 16 drum between 22 and 70 pounds. Check out the website for some cool pics. I'm in the process of designing the 2004 photo's page now.

We also caught a few snook and a few trout. Most of the snook hit soft plactics near the oyster bars and trout hit live sardines near sand bars.

The forecast for the next few weeks is good, as long as we don't get anymore large storms. The temps have dropped a few degrees the last couple of days and this should jumpstart the fall migration southward. If the fresh water moves out, then hopefully the baitfish schools will return and just maybe the bull reds will show back up.

Good Luck!

Capt. Scott Hughes

Blackwater Charters

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