Ft. Myers - Offshore

Capt. Rick Featherstone
April 30, 2001
Fort Myers - Saltwater Fishing Report

Tarpon Season Arrives

Greetings;

The majority of my time lately has been in pursuit of the might silver king. (Tarpon). With them are the normal gazillion sharks to keep me busy re-rigging and my anglers busy pumping and reeling while we wait for the poonies to bite.

Mother nature has sent us a couple of late season fronts and cooled the water temps off substantially. Along with the fronts of course has come the wind. Heavy seas have kept us fishing in close and in the backwater the majority of the time. The good news is that most days we have been able to make that work with consistent success on the sharks and tarpon. The half days have been tough because it seems the fish only are feeding on one tide, and never notify us as to which one it will be! One day we jumped seven tarpon all giants over a hundred pounds in the morning. We got not a single bite in the afternoon. The very next day it was just the opposite. On another trip I was netting bait around the bridge. My angler was tossing a jig just for fun and managed to hook a sixty pound tarpon that we released. Pretty nice fish on ten pound gear. Last Saturday we released twenty five sharks. The very next day we jumped three tarpon, and released one. We fought another one fifteen minutes before a king mackerel bit the leader in half as it streaked through the water. On that same trip we released a nine foot lemon shark and a seven footer. We also had a giant hammer head come up the chum line like a streak and take a swipe at the chum bag! That was pretty freaky as he was half as long as the Magic Hook.

Look for the tarpon along the beaches out to twenty five foot of water from Wiggins Pass all the way to Boca Grande Pass. Drifting, anchoring and chumming, flies, and plugs will produce when the bite is on.

Sincerely,

Capt. Rick Featherstone

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