Marco Island, Ft. Myers & Boca Grande
Capt. Scott Hughes
September 19, 2000
Fort Myers - Saltwater Fishing Report
A Little Bit of Everything!
It’s been a couple of weeks since my last report for Marco Island. I’ll try to make it up with this report. We are in a transition period between summer and fall. The summer species like snook and tarpon are on the slide and the fall and winter species like redfish, mackerel, and trout are coming on strong. Presently, you can get a taste of both if you play your cards right.
Large schools of spanish, cero and king mackerel are moving south offshore of Marco Island. They are following schools of small sardines and anchovies. We have caught limits of spanish mixed in with a few cero and the occasional kingfish throwing jigs and spoons into the frenzies of busting fish. Flies have also provided some excellent fun because most of the mackerel are over 18 inches with about every fourth fish over 24 inches. This is already proved to be one the best mackerel runs in recent memory. To locate the fish run offshore and look for flocks of birds. They will be following the mackerel.
Marco Island and the 10,000 Islands have also been producing excellent catches of trout for the past couple of weeks. This week we used top water lures to catch some nice legal fish in the afternoon because good live bait has been scarce. Try any of the grass flats south of Cape Romano or Round Key.
Tarpon have moved into the third position this week because of the scattering of the large schooling tarpon in Charlotte Harbor. We didn’t get skunked for the week in the harbor but we came awful close. Other than four predawn tarpon caught on lures in the lower Peace River we only saw a handful of large tarpon in the harbor in three days of tarpon hunting. This doesn’t make it worth your while, because I have hit at least a couple of nice tarpon before daylight on every trip. These fish aren’t huge. They have been in the 30-pound range with a few over 50-pounds. My suggestion is to fish the river from midnight until about an hour after daylight.
The report for Marco and Charlotte Harbor rounds out with a couple of species that always give a good pull and will usually save the trip if its been on the slow side. Jack Crevelle and Sharks have been doing both. Large numbers of jacks have been following the mackerel offshore of Marco and some BIG jacks are running the bridges of the Peace River and Myacca River. Sharks are also cruising around the mackerel schools offshore and we have hit a few extremely large sharks on live ladyfish in the harbor. Anything that is alive or fresh will get a sharks attention when they are feeding. Drag a half of a mackerel around the schools offshore or drift a live ladyfish through the mouth of the Peace River and you should get the old drag loosened up.
Good Luck!
Capt. Scott Hughes
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