Marco Island, Ft. Myers & Boca Grande

Capt. Scott Hughes
May 15, 2001
Fort Myers - Saltwater Fishing Report

Bustin Loose!

If you have been reading all the bad reports for the past three weeks, then this report makes up for all of those. The winds calmed down, the temperature rose to the upper 80’s and the fishing turned on like it hasn’t in quite a while. Tarpon, permit, snook, trout, jacks, mackerel, redfish and plenty of sharks were all HOT this week.

Tarpon were probably the most inconsistent producer through the weekend. We caught a few and I saw some every day last week but out of Marco Island they were just to scattered to spend a lot of time on them. The Ft Myers area has plenty of tarpon in Boca Grande Pass but the bite hasn’t been what most guides are used to.

Picking up the slack for the tarpon was just about every other species that swims in the water. Snook fishing was very good with some good catches on every trip that we targeted them. Smaller snook are out on the beaches now and the big momma snook aren’t far away. The larger snook seem to be in creeks and deep troughs that lead to the outside. One notable catch last week was caught by one of my customers Dick Yeaton.

Dick was pitching a live sardine along a mangrove edge and hooks a monster of a snook. The fish weighed in at 27-pounds on my Boga-grip scale. What make the catch so remarkable was that the snook was only 41 inches long. Dick wasn’t finished yet. With the next sardine he landed an 18-pound snook that fought harder than the first. Both snook were caught with 10-LB test line.

Trout fishing isn’t usually my thing but there is always some for catching a fish on every cast. That was the way it was for a couple of customers, Ken Yedisky and his wife Penny. We found the trout south of Cape Romano and caught them along with about 40 jacks and some mackerel for nearly two hours. We used small liver sardines for everything. The flats south of Cape Romano and south of Round Key have been “alive” with activity. Trout, jacks, mackerel ladyfish and some snook are busting bait along the deeper trenches.

Huge jack crevelle are cruising offshore with spanish mackerel. I have targeting them with a 9 wt flyrod but live sardines and lures will produce more strikes. The problem with trying to catch them on a fly is getting the jacks to beat the mackerel to the fly. The jacks are running from 10-20 pounds and the mackerel are bout 16-20 inches.

One surprise this week was the arrival of large schools of permit in the 30-40 pound class. The first day that we encountered them, we didn’t have any crabs or shrimp. We had a few follow a jig but that was about the extent to the action. The next day I didn’t have time to go out that far so I told a buddy of mine to go and look for them and his customers landed a nice 30-pound permit. It took them about 30 minutes to land him with 15-pound test line. Most of the large schools are now probably off the Naples area out a few miles.

Redfish have been pretty slow out of Marco Island but they sure haven’t been in Charlotte Harbor. My dad has been seeing hundreds of them schooling along the bars on the eastern shore of the harbor. The water is extremely clear because of the lack of fresh water and they are very spooky. Plastic jerk baits are my favorite artificial to use for sight casting for reds in the harbor.

Blacktips sharks from 20 pounds on up are still providing great fun from Marco Island north to Boca Grande. Live mullet, lady fish and thread herring will get the strikes and if your lucky you might be surprised by a giant tarpon while your at it.

Good Luck!

Capt. Scott Hughes

Blackwater Charters

863-946-9171

www.blackwatercharters.com [email protected]

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