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Report for Naples, Marco Island and the Ten Thousand Islands
Capt. Matt Hoover
December 18, 2001
Marco Island - Saltwater Fishing Report
Free For All
Fishing was about as good as it gets for this time of year. In fact, it was good for any time of the year. The water temperature remained in the seventies. That has kept the live bait around. When there is bait, there are predators.
The only major concern this week was extreme negative tides. This week was centered on a new moon. In the winter, tides can get extremely low. The good news is that we had strong currents and the fish love that. There are scaled sardines, threadfin herring and mullet everywhere. The highlight this week was tarpon. We managed to hook a few on live bait and cut bait too. Most of the fish were over one hundred pounds. I would have liked to get more aggressive with the tarpon but most of my anglers had an end of the season snook on their minds. I do know that some of the other local guides took advantage of the tarpon that showed up in the last week and they did very well. These fish take advantage of all the bait in the area as they are getting ready for the first sign of winter. Late season tarpon will get very aggressive because they are done with the spawn and have food on their minds.
Snook fishing remained steady this past week. Anglers did well with live bait and artificial lures too. With the tide so low in the morning, it paid to get in a place where a bay or cove might be emptying out. I have to admit that I did better on the first half of the incoming tide. We caught snook of all sizes. We also caught some slot-sized redfish this week. They seem to be milling about where you would expect to catch a snook. Trout were in the equation too. I had more than one slam this week because larger trout are starting to hang out where the snook do.
I have to mention that some large jacks and ladyfish exhausted anglers in between the other gamefish. The ladyfish are particularly large this time of year and make excellent tarpon bait.
There are schools of mackerel, bluefish and ladyfish near shore. They will hit anything and provide excellent action. Don’t be surprised to see large tarpon getting in on the act. Tarpon love to eat anything that gets in their way and the aforementioned fish are on their list of food.
We have a cold front passing through this week. It looks as if it might fizzle out in our area. It is sure to drop the temperature a little. If it doesn’t, expect the action to remain good. Weather like this is a bonus so let’s take advantage of it. I will see you on the water.
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