Ft. Myers - Offshore

Capt. Rick Featherstone
June 10, 2002
Fort Myers - Saltwater Fishing Report

Kings and Silver Kings

Greetings;

This week my time was spent split between offshore and inshore. All of my inshore fishing was done in search of the mighty silver king.

Offshore was beautiful, with calm seas, clear water, and lots of action. We never attempted to do any bottom fishing for grouper or snapper. There has been a bit of a late season smoker kingfish run along with good permit, cuda, and little tunny action to keep us busy. Using both threadfin's and Yourzi lures we had steady action early in the mornings in forty five feet of water on king mackerel up to thirty five pounds. There were a couple of kings that were beyond the ability of our twelve pound spinning outfits to land. With double hookups, and fish going in opposite directions, you can only chase one while the other takes all the line! Over these same hard bottom areas, that are holding bait are little tunny's. White jigs and Youzri casting spoons are working well. If you need your drag heated up these are the guys to hook up with for sure. Big cudas have been tough for me this week, but we did manage a few up to twenty four pounds on live cigar minnows and tube lures. Permit up to fifteen pounds are around on a few structures. They are skittish, and spook easily. If spooked, forget it, they get lockjaw quickly. If you are able to drift in from a couple of hundred yards, and stay low in the boat, you can have a awesome day. We managed to release five yesterday afternoon. Yellow jigs were our bait of choice tipped with shrimp.

Tarpon have been active along the beach from Bonita Springs to Sanibel Island. Working from seventeen feet out to twenty two feet of water we mostly used live baits both drifting and anchored. During the afternoon sea breeze I tended to anchor up and chum. There are pods of bait being worked over by spanish mackerel. Look for tarpon to be in the area of some of these pods. I was able to drift into the tarpon school and cast baits right at specific fish. Sharks, cobia, and mackerel have been by-catches also. We hooked one giant hammerhead that we chased a mile and a half before it rubbed the line apart above my fourteen feet of leader.

Have a blast out there, and watch the afternoon storms. We ran in the last mile on Saturday with near zero visibility. Thankfully we had radar and a GPS map to help lead the way back into Lovers Key

Sincerely,

Capt. Rick Featherstone

More Fishing Reports:

• All Reports by Capt. Rick Featherstone
• Fort Myers Fishing Reports
• Southwest Florida (Cape Sable to Boca Grande) Reports
• Florida Fishing Reports
• Browse All Fishing Reports