Report for Naples, Marco Island and the Ten Thousand Islands
Capt. Matt Hoover
September 6, 2000
Marco Island - Saltwater Fishing Report
Fall Action
It’s mayhem out there. There are all sorts of bait out there and everything on the planet is after it. The birds are going crazy. The mackerel are going crazy. The jacks are going crazy. Everything out there is going crazy. I had gotten some bait and we were headed south to the islands to go snook fishing when we saw a massive flock of birds just offshore. My clients asked if we could check it out. We got there and started fishing. We caught everything. We had more than one “non typical” slams apiece. A non-typical slam is something that I made up while we were out there. You didn’t know what you were going to get. We caught jacks, mackerel, ladyfish, blue runners, trout, a bluefish, and we saw tarpon. You could see flocks of birds wherever you look. There is no excuse for not having fun.
There were lots of snook caught this week. Stacy Mullendore and his crew brought some fine keeper size snook to the dock. Most of those people were using live bait. The fish seem to be scattered throughout the islands. I have been catching them out front, in the middle, and in the back as well. All of the guides that I talk to are doing the same. We have been catching a lot of small snook with the occasional five to ten pounder thrown in. The redfish are starting to show up better too. Some of them are oversize fish. I got reports of more than one redfish that went over thirty inches. It won’t be long before the redfish show up in big numbers.
There are tarpon in the ten to sixty pound class all over the place. If you wanted to catch one, it wouldn’t be hard to find them. They are just about everywhere you go. They aren’t as picky about what they will eat this time of year. I am still getting surprise attacks from them around the bushes while we are snook and red fishing.
The trout are still going strong. There are plenty and they are big. Captain Jay Peeler told me that he got into a mess of them that would actually pull some serious drag. He won’t tell me where though. He said that he was using shiners under a popping cork and they would eat the shiner and then attack the cork. Jigs, spoons, and topwater lures have been working well too.
There is a lot going on out there. I don’t think you could go fishing this time of year and not have a good time. I hope to see you on the water.
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