Ft. Myers - Offshore

Capt. Rick Featherstone
April 22, 2003
Fort Myers - Saltwater Fishing Report

Great Weather, Great Fishing

Greetings;

You can sum up the weather and fishing this week as chamber of commerce perfect. Calm seas, pretty days combined with good fishing came right on top of our Easter week anglers. I did not do any inshore fishing this week as that siren call from the Gulf was just to much for me to resist. My fishing this week was between seven and twenty miles with the bulk of that about ten miles. Reef fishing for grouper, snapper, porgies, triggers, and such was non stop. Perfect for family fishing fun. On each of those trips we managed to land a goliath grouper or nice kingfish create extra excitement and memories. One family got quite a show when "grampa" hooked a twenty something king and after fighting it ten minutes it was eaten by a big hammerhead. On another adventure a twenty five inch grouper was eaten by a goliath grouper several times, what a sight to see, he took it once right at boat side. On our ride home one afternoon we discovered a leatherback turtle estimated weight at five hundred pounds, struggling and caught in crab trap lines, exhausted. Seas were sloppy, and it took a while but we managed to untangle four traps, lines, etc. and our turtle was on his way much happier.

Tarpon are here. I targeted them three times this week, and two times for a while at the end of our day. At times frustrating hard to find, but when found, they have been eating well on just about any live bait I tried. We had one eat a half & half fly also. They are running all sizes together in two big schools and wandering around. My anglers caught at least one every time we tried with one exception. So far this month we have released twelve fish between sixty and one hundred and eighty five pounds.

I had my best day of the spring on kingfish this week with live baits as well. Working ledges and hard bottom I could not get two rods in the water before another fish was hooked. They were all in the mid to high teens. Great action on the twelve pound gear used.

Tight Lines,

Capt. Rick Featherstone

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