Marco Island, Ft. Myers & Boca Grande

Capt. Scott Hughes
March 28, 2001
Fort Myers - Saltwater Fishing Report

Good Fishing Between Fronts

Its been getting hard to find time to write this report since we are in the full-swing of the spring fishing season. To bad someone didn’t tell the fish. Just when everything was starting to fire up with the warm weather that we had in February we got two weeks of below normal temperatures and winds of 20-25 knots that dropped the water to a chilly 60 degrees and wiped out any clear water in the backcountry. Just a few days ago conditions started to improve and fishing picked up with most of the major species feeding during some point in the day.

Tarpon just started to show last Sunday. We saw about 40-50 fish in the 50 to 100 pound range off the 10,000 Islands. What was unusual about the fish was that they usually feed fairly well after moving inshore. I fished them two days and we only had two fish on. Both spit the hook before we could drive a good hook-set into their bony jaw. Also, there are tarpon moving around in the backcountry of the upper 10,000 Islands. We hooked a couple of tarpon that were well over 100-pounds in Fakahatchee, even in the middle of a 20-knot wind. Other than that we just didn’t get much done on the tarpon scene this week. I believe that if the cold fronts don’t get out of hand we will see the tarpon fishing get more consistent this week.

After the cold front passed through, we found an excellent snook bite on the late afternoon falling tide. The key was using live sardines. Sunday was the first day in a week that I was able to find large sardines of Marco Island. The winds had made the water to muddy and the seas were to large to run far offshore to find them. The snook are starting to move to the beaches and most of the good catches that were reported were near some of the major passes to the outside.

Trout and redfish were about the only thing consistent this week. I didn’t really spend any time targeting either species this week but we caught trout everyday while we were trying to catch ladyfish for bait. The flats south of Round Key and Indian key passes were holding some nice keeper size trout most of the week. The flats of Cape Romano also had some good catches once the water cleared up on Sunday. We also caught some good-sized redfish while we were snook fishing. They ate the live sardines that we were using. All of the redfish were at least 26 inches. Capt. Greg Bond also found some large Redfish near West Pass in Everglades National Park.

Snapper have invaded the backcountry south of Goodland. We caught loads of mangrove snapper pitching jigs tipped with shrimp in the major passes and rivers while fishing for bait (ladyfish). Almost all of the snapper were of keeper size and two were about 2-pounds on my boga grip. My customers were able to catch a couple of limits before lunch on most days that we used ladyfish for tarpon and sharks.

Speaking of sharks, they are still around. Large blacktip and hammerhead sharks are taking cut bait in the major channels of the upper 10,000 Islands. Most of the fish are ranging form 80-150 pounds.

The outlook for the next two weeks is good. The tarpon will be showing up in greater numbers as the water warms into the 80’s. Fronts will slow things down a bit but hopefully they won’t be as strong as the ones we got in March.

Good Luck!

Capt. Scott Hughes

Blackwater Charters

863-946-9171

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