Marco Island, Ft. Myers & Boca Grande

Capt. Scott Hughes
August 30, 2000
Fort Myers - Saltwater Fishing Report

Almost, But no Cigar.

This week all of my focus was on Charlotte Harbor tarpon. I ran all three trips out of Punta Gorda. I was hoping to find some large schools of adult tarpon feeding on ladyfish and sardines in the mouth of the Peace and Myacca Rivers. Last year was excellent with triple digit tarpon caught on almost every trip. This year has been a little slow with all the dry weather. I believe that the lack of freshwater runoff kept the small sardines and threads farther up the rivers. We have seen some signs of the start of the major feeding periods that mark the start of fall, but its not happening yet. On three trips this week we only hooked 11 tarpon and landed 3.

Tarpon …..The best tarpon action we encountered was way up the Peace River. All eleven of the tarpon we hooked hit before daylight or after dusk. Trolled or cast bomber long A’s produced all the strikes. About 3 of the fish we hooked were in the 60-80 pound range. Also, we located some scattered 100+ pounders in the deep holes in the middle of the harbor. We drifted ladyfish and sardines but couldn’t get any to play.

Jacks…….Large jack crevelle are schooling on the 41 bridge in the Peace River. They are hitting live sardines, plugs and flies on a rising tide.

Trout…….I haven’t done much trout fishing this week but I did see bunches of trout popping on the flats of the Eastern Shore of Charlotte Harbor. Last week we had a ball catching a couple of limits of nice 16-20 inch keepers. We did catch a few casting medium sized bomber lures while waiting for the pinfish to come to the chum on the flats. Your best bet for catching a mess is to get a live well full of small sardines and fish them a few feet under a popping cork.

Sharks…….Blacktip, bull and bonnethead sharks are following the tarpon schools around the harbor and will hit mullet, ladyfish or sardines. The fresher the water gets in the harbor the less likely you’ll find blacktips and bonnetheads . The bull sharks don’t mind the fresh water.

Good Luck!

Capt. Scott Hughes

Blackwater Charters

(863)946-9171

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