Report for Naples, Marco Island and the Ten Thousand Islands
Capt. Matt Hoover
December 8, 2003
Marco Island - Saltwater Fishing Report
Winter Whirl
Winter is definitely here. This past week the winds were stiff, the skies were gloomy at times, and the water temperature took another plunge. There were some pleasant breaks in the weather throughout the week as well. Plenty of fish were caught too. It is time to employ some of the winter tactics.
Winter species have been showing up in the Marco and Ten Thousand Islands area. I like to catch a few live shiners to pitch around the bushes throughout the day. But most of us are throwing live shrimp that have been weighted with a split shot. Fishing in three to eight feet of water, you don’t know what you are going to get. We call it zoo fishing. We have been catching a boatload of sheepshead. Expect to catch trout, redfish, snook and black drum deep dropping shrimp. Other guides have reported several great days with a mixed bag of sheepshead, drum, redfish, and smaller snook using shrimp.
Jigs are another winter tool. I like to throw bucktail jigs or a quarter ounce jig with a darker screwtail body. Anglers have been catching pompano in the passes around Marco and the hard bottom passes of the Islands. Tube jigs or jigs with the dressing trimmed back are working the best.
My anglers caught bluefish, trout, and mackerel on jigs until their arms were sore on the grassflats this week. We get a good run of bluefish that are in the three to six pound range. They can smoke your drag on light tackle.
We are still catching fish on live shiners. I spent one day this week with my clients throwing shiners and we did quite well. There were plenty of jacks, ladyfish and some smaller snook that were happy to bend our rods. We caught two redfish as well.
Break out the sweaters and jackets if you are going in the morning. It has been quite cool. It is even cooler when you throttle down. The mornings are fresh and the fishing has been well worth it. I’ll see you on the water.
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