Ft. Myers - Offshore

Capt. Rick Featherstone
February 7, 2002
Fort Myers - Saltwater Fishing Report

Warm Weather, Calm Seas

Greetings:

As you read this, I sit home with the flu and the wind blowing 20+. That said, fishing has been very good to us lately.

After several warm, calm days out in the Gulf, I almost forgot it was still winter! Bait pods moving around, King Mackerel, & Cobia moved into our area, and even some cudas up on the surface helped cloud my memory.

February normally centers around snapper fishing for me on day long trips. This has still been the case with the exception of calm, warm days in which to peruse them. We made several runs to the larger ledges I know of in the past two weeks. After setting up a good chum line both at the surface and deep, we would free line with as light a sinker as possible. Yellowtail snapper, mangrove snapper, and a few mutton snapper kept us very busy and our fish box full. During these trips we also caught and released cobia to 40#, black grouper to 20#, and a nice 30# cuda.

My only inshore adventure found us chasing roving packs of spanish mackerel just outside the passes. We did hit most of the inshore structures but could not hook up to any gags or much of anything of size so I switched to light tackle and went on the Mack Attack. Using white jigs, crippled herring, and shrimp we had steady action fishing under the birds. Its amazing how much line these guys can pull off of and 8# rig.

We are currently under a passing front, so who knows what will be biting after. Normally its really good so check the weather and plan your trip.

Sincerely,

Capt. Rick

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