Marco Island, Ft. Myers & Boca Grande

Capt. Scott Hughes
September 25, 2001
Fort Myers - Saltwater Fishing Report

Feeding Frenzy!

First of all, I would like to say that my thoughts and prayers are with those of you in New York. I checked my books from the past few years and about 10 % of my customers are from New York City. I hope all is well. As for the fishing it’s been understandably slow for the charters business. I did get out to try to get back into the normal swing of things this week. I took my dad out for a little trout and mackerel fishing and we caught plenty of fish and had lots of fun. Charlotte Harbor is full of life. There is bait everywhere and fish of all types are chasing them. The tarpon scene is as good as it was but I have reports that they are showing up south of Lee County. I usually run all of my tarpon trips out of Marco Island for the months of October and early November.

Mackerel were top catch this week. Not that redfish were scarce, but I just didn’t target them. Spanish mackerel from 16-25 inches are all over the northern sound and in Charlotte Harbor. We did the best outside of Boca Grande Pass where we chummed them up around the boat with live Spanish sardines. Most of the spanish were 16-20 inches. We didn’t even catch one that wasn’t legal sized. Other anglers caught plenty trolling Clark Spoons.

Trout fishing was also good using some of the live sardines that are schooling in acre sized pods. Drift fishing them over grass flats in the northern Pine Island Sound produced tout up to 25 inches. There have also been excellent reports of large trout in Gasprilla Sound.

Reds are still schooling in Charlotte Harbor and Pine Island sound. The guides that I have been talking to that have been targeting them are reporting catches of up to 60 reds in a day on live bait and 20 per day on lures.

There has been a mixed bag of other catches this week. Schools of blue runners are outside the passes along with the spanish mackerel. I’m sure that large king mackerel aren’t far away with their two favorite foods in such abundance. Ladyfish to 7-pounds are balling sardines in the harbor and on the beaches outside of Boca Grande Pass. I spotted a few tarpon feeding here and there among the bait pods but they haven’t been thick enough to target.

Next week I’ll start fishing out of Marco Island and targeting the fall run of tarpon. The reports have been on the weak side but I did hear that a small school of tarpon in the 30-50 pound range has arrived. My next report will give a complete run down of what is going on in the upper 10,000 Islands.

Good Luck!

Capt. Scott Hughes

Blackwater Charters

863-946-9171

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