Marco Island, Ft. Myers & Boca Grande

It's Still Cold! Fish the Backcountry. First of all, I’m sorry about the delay in the report. I don’t have much of an excuse because I haven’t been fishing all that much due to the windy and or cold weather. I’ve been getting in two or three days a week but I haven’t been able to get much done since my last report. Oh, there have been some moments that were pretty darn good but for the most part the weather has been limiting what we have been able to do. You can almost always fish the backcountry even when the wind is gusting to 20 knots. The routine this time of year is to fish the deep holes with jigs or shrimp on the bottom. This type of fishing generally produces catches of ladyfish, snapper, sheephead, trout, flounder, small grouper and a variety of other less common species. If you’re looking for the “glamour” species like Tarpon, Snook, and Redfish then you’ll have to pick your days in between cold fronts. This year there aren’t many of those “in between” days. Anyway, let’s get to the reports. Jack Crevelle produced the most consistent drag peeling action for me this week. We caught plenty of jacks in the backcountry south of Marco Island with jigs. Most of these fish were less than 5-pounds. We did catch a couple of nice jacks that pushed the 10-pound mark. Closer to Marco we found great jack fishing in Blind Pass. These fish have been bigger. Most of them are over 5 pounds. We caught them with live sardines. The snook actually fed on the 28th of December. We found some in Blind Pass along with the jacks. The largest of the snook was about 30 inches. A few have also been around the bars of Cape Romano. The only baits that caught the snook were live sardines. We have been catching some good-sized trout for almost a month now. The fish are mostly singles, but they are all over the 20-inch maximum. I haven’t looked for any major schools but I will check out all the major trout flats when the season opens on New Years Day. Remember that you can only keep four. Last year the limit was five. Like I mentioned earlier the fishing has shown some signs of life. On the 27th we caught a few grouper in the backcountry. But the grouper fishing has slowed a bit since Christmas. That same day we found a tripletail and there have been reports that the crab markers off Ft Myers are producing a few as well. Also that same day we saw a tarpon free jump off Cape Romano and also saw some false albacore tuna skipping in the same are as the tarpon. Its sounds great doesn’t it! Well, we didn’t score on any of the above. We found the tripletail about 100 feet in front of a crab boat working the line and the boat spooked the tripletail before we could catch him. The tarpon and false albacore just wouldn’t hit. I know it sounds crazy for those of who are used to the fishing here. I have never seen bonita turn down a live sardine until this week. And we just got lucky by seeing a tarpon. There is no guarantee to find tarpon this time of year. We were just happy to have the shot at one. The fishing forecast is just like last week. If the winds don’t calm down the fishing is going to be less than spectacular. Try for snook and redfish when the temperatures rise for a few days and try for trout, pompano, jacks and ladyfish any time else. If you retreat into the backcountry of the 10,000 Islands try to catch some pinfish for grouper. Grouper will hold around any large tree that is submerged in deep water. That will be around almost every corner. So you don’t have any excuses about keeping busy. Good Luck! Capt. Scott Hughes Blackwater Charters 863-946-9171