Ft. Myers - Offshore

Capt. Rick Featherstone
May 21, 2001
Fort Myers - Saltwater Fishing Report

Tarpon Times

Greetings;

Fishing in general has been very good for most anything we chased the last two weeks. As normal for me this time of year most of my time has been spent chasing silver kings in the Gulf. Action has been consistent and productive if we put in the time to search them out. We had a couple of late season cold fronts and two weeks of heavy wind that changed the whole fishing and bait pattern around. That has kept me pretty busy trying to figure out a pattern that for all practical purposes does not exist. That said, we have been able to hook tarpon on almost every trip we targeted them if we stayed patient.

On the offshore stage the grouper have invaded the ledges and live bottom areas and are there in good numbers. Both live and cut baits have been productive. On the wrecks jewfish, amberjack, cobia, permit, and kings are all there.

Tarpon are along the whole coast from Wiggins Pass to Boca Grande Pass. Our drill for most days is to either run to the Sanibel Causeway for the almost sure bet at big thread herring for bait or run offshore and look for pods of threads to sabiki them in. Using a half inch ten or twelve foot cast net we can normally get plenty of threads for live bait and chum pretty quickly. Its a trade off I take on most days right now and invest the extra hour it takes to make it happen as the threads have been the answer to a successful story when we find the tarpon. Poons can be found off the May reef, and off the southern coast of Sanibel. Depth has been changing from day to day but lately the fish have been deeper than twenty five feet. My daughter Jenny fought a huge tarpon last week for two hours then gave the rod to me. I gave that fish my best shot for another half our before we could get a good release on him. He measured just under seven feet in length. Also there are still some nice sharks mixed in with them to.

If king mackerel light your fire then find the big areas of bait that are moving through our area about ten miles out. Work the edges with spoons or live baits and hang on as these fish are the late run smokers and can really heat up a drag.

Good luck and keep your patience handy there are some nice fish out there if you do.

Sincerely,

Capt. Rick Featherstone

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