Marco Island, Ft. Myers & Boca Grande

Redfish on the Flats.....Hard Cold Fronts Hits. This week I focused on doing some fishing in the Ft Myers area and Pine Island Sound. Its been almost a month or more since I have really spent some time up there and scouted out my favorite fishing spots. At the moment we are in the midst of a cold front that has us hunkered down at docks with seas offshore up to 9 feet. Before the front passed through I found some excellent fishing on both the south and north ends of Pine Island Sound. Redfish is usually my main target in Pine Island Sound this time of year. Usually the week before Thanksgiving is a great time to hunt for tailing redfish on the flats. This year was no different. I found large redfish to about 30 inches tailing on the flats of northern Pine Island Sound on a rising tide. They were following stingrays and eating crabs that were spooked by the rays. At low tide they were outside the sandbars and in potholes on the flats waiting to feed when the tide came in. Flies, free lined shrimp, and plastic jerk baits are my favorite baits to use when you can find them tailing. Also please try to run in the deep channels and on the outside of the flats when traveling the sound. The recent flats boat craze has put lots of boats on the flats and its no wonder why its uncommon to find tailing reds these days. It seems that everyone who buys a flats boats wants to prove how shallow his boats runs and in the process ruins great sight fishing that Pine Island is famous for. Trout are out of season until January 1st but that doesn’t mean that they won’t bite. I found actively feeding schools of seatrout in shallow water and in the potholes in both the south and northern flats of the sound. Live sardines and hand picked shrimp produced dozens of nice sized trout with a few going over 20 inches. I didn’t try them on a fly, but they are always willing to take a clouser minnow stripped over a sand hole at low tide. Snook are third on the list this week. We are catching a few around the deeper mangrove edges with live sardines. Look for snook to be moving up the rivers to run from the dropping water temperatures after this front passes through. Other species that we have encountered this week were pompano on the flats of northern Pine Island Sound and Cape Romano Shoals. Jacks are also everywhere. They aren’t very big. Only 3-5-pounds but they will give a good pull if you’re using light line. A few small blacktip sharks have also been tailing on the flats along with the redfish. The forecast for the next few days depends on the weather. If we might get a few warmer days after thanksgiving but then another cold front is going to hit us. That will shut down the redfish and snook and move the trout into the deep holes. The mackerel and pompano fishing will improve. Good Luck! Capt. Scott Hughes Blackwater Charters 863-946-9171