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Report for Naples, Marco Island and the Ten Thousand Islands
Capt. Matt Hoover
November 13, 2001
Marco Island - Saltwater Fishing Report
Extravaganza
Cool mornings and warm sunny afternoons made up the weather of this past week. The fall migration is still in progress and that gave us opportunities to catch a variety of fish.
Migratory schools of bait are everywhere. The baitfish will congregate together this time of year. This past week I threw my net and caught threadfin herring, scaled sardines, Spanish sardines, and menhaden with just the one throw. That bait pod was in the islands. Along the beaches of Marco, you will probably find the same thing. Just off shore, bluefish, mackerel, ladyfish and jacks are shredding hordes of bait. It isn’t hard to find them. The birds are cart wheeling everywhere. There are some large mackerel in the melee. A mackerel of twenty-three inches or so will smoke the drag on a ten-pound test outfit. These fish will hit anything and are a great way to get plenty of action.
The Marco and Ten thousand Islands area are still giving up snook and redfish. Small to medium snook are still being caught in fair numbers in front as well as in the backcountry. We have been catching legal redfish on live bait too. I was in the backcountry of the Ten thousand Islands when I saw a familiar headwake that was followed by a very large boil. I had a client heave a Magnum Bomber lure towards the disturbance, and seventy pounds of silver fury exploded on the fake fish. The tarpon gave us a great show before sending the lure back to us after the fourth run and jump. Hmmm, there could be more. There were. We found and hooked three more tarpon to one hundred pounds that afternoon. Tarpon do not roll that much when the water is cool. You have to have a feeling that they are there or just stumble across them. Why did I have tarpon gear with me? It is the time of year and I had that feeling.
I did some flyfishing in the little boat Pinocchio this week. The water was thin and conditions were perfect. I covered all the skinny water haunts and we did not see more than half a dozen fish. It seems as if the fish are not acclimated to the cooler water. We tied on black clouser minnows and started dredging deeper runs. That tactic produced several decent snook, trout and a couple of redfish. It’s not sightfishing, but sometimes one has to punt.
We should be able to enjoy another week of similar weather. It is supposed to cloud over for a little bit, but that won’t last long. I would like to mention that the Naples Backcountry Flyfishers are hosting an extravaganza called “An Introduction to Saltwater Flyfishing”. The event will have casting demos, flytying demos, and many more how to do demonstrations as well. There will be a big screen show with actual footage of flyfishing in our area. There will be flats skiffs from our local dealers. Guides and many of our local tackle shops will be represented there as well. The event will be at the Naples Conservancy off Goodlette Road on Saturday November 17. The event will be held from 10 AM until 2 PM. If you ever had any questions about saltwater flyfishing, this will be the place to be. I hope to see you there.
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