Marco Island, Ft. Myers & Boca Grande
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By Scott Hughes
Ho, Ho, Hum! It's Winter. It seems that this is going to be a winter of cold fronts. Usually we get a front about every 5-7 days. Already this year we are getting at least two fronts per week. Water temperatures are already well below 70 degrees in some areas. Most of the fronts don’t have an excessive amount of wind with them but the lack of 80 degree days aren’t warming the shallows like it normally does. This cold weather is going to hurt species like tarpon, snook and redfish. It could make traditional winter species fishing extremely good because we haven’t had a cold winter in a few years. Trout, mackerel, pompano and sheephead are the main edible species that we catch during the cold of winter. Ladyfish and jacks also keep the action going, but they don’t have any food value. Over Thanksgiving the water warmed up during the day and we got into some decent snook fishing for winter conditions. We got snook to take cut bait and live sardines near Cape Romano and in the upper 10,000 Islands. The majority of these fish were under the 26-inch minimum size limit. Redfish have stopped schooling on the flats after the last cold front, but there were a few still feeding south of Marco Island last week. They took small live sardines and shrimp fished with popping corks. Catch and release trout fishing is HOT out of Ft Myers. We released dozens of trout to 22-inches on just about every trip the past couple of weeks in southern Pine Island Sound. They have been taking live sardines, jigs and cutbait. A variety of other species are providing plenty of action around the passes from Sanibel to Boca Grande. Large ladyfish to almost 5-pounds and plenty of small jacks are taking jigs and rattle trap lures fished around the shoals of Redfish and Captiva Passes. Sheephead are starting to school on the flats and in the potholes of the sound and it won’t be long before they are spawning in the passes and anglers will be catching limits on jigs and shrimp. Good Luck! Capt. Scott Hughes Blackwater Charters 863-946-9171