Ft. Myers - Offshore

Capt. Rick Featherstone
January 19, 2002
Fort Myers - Saltwater Fishing Report

Warming Trend Improves Offshore Fishing

Greetings:

The recent warming trend combined with a few pretty days has led us to some great days offshore this past week. We made the decision to re-power our Mako with a new engine, so our rides were a bit shorter due to a faster cruising speed, and more relaxing as its much quieter.

One morning we ran thirty six miles south and west of Big Carlos Pass. Here I set up a drift over a large hard bottom area. While a couple of my anglers were bottom bouncing jigs I put out two free lined live baits, one weightless and one with a light quarter ounce weight. Our action came quick from the bottom rigs. Lots of undersize red and gag grouper, lane snapper, porgies, and grunts, kept me busy re-baiting and checking the bottom machine. Out of every twenty or so fish we caught we would land a nice keeper grouper. Mixed in would be a couple of large lane snapper or Mangrove snapper. During the day we picked up two fifteen pound king fish, and had a very rare sailfish bite on the free lined baits.

On my only half day trip of the week we ran sixteen miles out of New Pass. Again drifting we had a banner morning! Using sardines and squid to tip our jigs we managed to land six nice keeper gag grouper. Toss in fifteen or so mangrove snapper and you have a cooler full of fish for a mornings effort for sure.

Lets hope this weather and fishing holds up for a while!

Sincerely,

Capt. Rick

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