Marco Island, Ft. Myers & Boca Grande

Capt. Scott Hughes
October 9, 2000
Fort Myers - Saltwater Fishing Report

Everglades Pot Luck!

Cool less humid air has made fishing very comfortable. This coupled with shorter days makes an all day fishing trip worth while. This is typical fall fishing. Something is going to bend your rod all day long if you keep an open mind. Snook and snapper rule the backcountry and jacks and mackerel are everywhere on the outside beaches. A few redfish, flounder and tarpon have been mixed in to keep thing interesting.

Snapper are about the surest thing going on in the 10,000 Islands. Hoards of keeper sized snapper are in the creeks and river from Marco Island to Everglades City. It hasn’t been hard to catch a limit or two of mangrove snapper using live sardines fished with a popping cork. Jigs tipped with shrimp also are a sure bet.

Sardines are also producing good numbers of small snook. We have been boating about dozen per trip fishing with popping corks. The majority of these fish are smaller than the size limit and must be released. Try using finger mullet or large thread herring to entice the larger snook. Although, big bait has been anything but consistent. A few scattered schools of threads and sardines have been off the beach of Marco Island.

Spanish mackerel, jacks and ladyfish are off the beaches from Ft Myers to Cape Romano. They are following glass minnow schools and will take spoons, jigs and gold and yellow flies. We caught some large jacks using large live sardines around Caxambas Pass. A few spanish have been popping up in the backcountry also.

Medium sized tarpon to about 50 pounds can be found in the deeper holes in the backcountry on low tide. Fred Lieb fished with me last Saturday and he caught a 30 and a 40-pounder using live sardines. These size tarpon might be my favorite when hooked on light 12pound test spinning tackle. Both fish made some excellent runs and about 6-10 spectacular jumps.

All in all, October has been very productive. The fish haven’t been extremely large and the wind has been unpredictable but the backcountry always has some calm fishing areas. If your not stuck to one plan, you can be flexible and find something to play with all day.

Good Luck!

Capt. Scott Hughes

Blackwater Charters

863-946-9171

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