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Report for Naples, Marco Island and the Ten Thousand Islands
Capt. Matt Hoover
February 26, 2002
Marco Island - Saltwater Fishing Report
Old Man Winter
There were a few days this past week where you had to watch for the punches as far as weather was concerned. Most of the week produced fair catches. By the weekend, a front came through and made its presence known. Rain plagued us on Saturday and cool hard breezes graced us on Sunday. As of this writing, we are supposed to be facing the coldest weather of this winter season. Let’s hope that it is our last face off with Old Man Winter.
Trout and pompano stole the show this week for most of the anglers that I talked to. Fishermen were catching pompano in the passes around Marco if you could stand the red tide. We caught trout at just about every stop. They were out in front of the islands, on the grass flats and in the deeper runs along the islands. Ladyfish and small to eight-pound jacks kept reels warm as well. All of these species were more than willing to hit jigs of all types.
We caught a few snook and redfish this week as well. You had to be willing to beat the bushes. I had great success with sassy shad type bodies on quarter ounce jigs. Most of our fish were caught in the back bays in the Ten Thousand Islands. The snook were dark so that means that they were coming out of the deep backcountry. This upcoming cold spell will certainly change their behavior.
Folks are still catching plenty of sheepshead and some large black drum in deeper water on live shrimp or jigs that are tipped with shrimp. These fish like hard bottom. Just watch your depth finder and you will find spots like this at every other turn. You can catch just about anything when you are fishing deep hard bottom. You may get roasted by an unidentified finny critter.
This next week will certainly pose a challenge. It will be more like winter but I think that the weather will start to warm as the week progresses. There may be some rain as well. It is nothing that die-hard veteran fishermen have not seen before. Be prepared to find fish in deeper water. They will seek warmer water. Hopefully we will not lose to many degrees in water temperature. Dress warm for the chill in the mornings. I will see you on the water.
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