Marco Island, Ft. Myers & Boca Grande

Good Fishing Returns! After three weeks of mediocre fishing the winds calmed down and the temperatures tipped the mid 80’s and the fishing responded as a result. Trips prior to Turkey Day were still the “winter” mode with cool winds and choppy seas offshore. Bait was on the small side. Jacks, ladyfish and the occasional snook were the main catches. After Thanksgiving conditions started to improve and by Saturday we were catching bunches of snook, spanish mackerel, smoker kings and bull sharks. Smoker Kings, Snook, Bull Sharks and more! Snook catches improved everyday this week cumulating with catches of 14 by customer Joe Hutchinson and his son on Saturday and around 22-25 by Scott Widler and his brother in law Russ on Sunday. The key to the snook was large sardines and thread herring. Most of the time we use small shiners in the winter because the fish are keying on small food. We caught a few snook with the smaller shiners on Friday but I found the bigger bait for the weekend and the snook went crazy for them. Schools of bigger sardines can be found from 1-3 miles out of Marco Island and off the Port of the Isles. Most of the snook were just under the slot from 20-30. The fish seem to be moving to the outside points for now but will back inside when the next cold front comes through. Big smoker kingfish are running spanish mackerel schools a few miles offshore from Marco Island south to Everglades City. We chummed up the kings on near shore wrecks with live sardines. Most of the kings were over the 20-pound mark with some in the 30-pound range. Saturday Scott Widler and Russ had their hand full with kings from about 8:30 am to 9:30 am. If you didn’t hook a smoker then a smoker would be cutting off a spanish mackerel or bluefish that was hitting the sardines that we were putting out for the kings. I also saw some kings skyrocket offshore of Whitehorse Key. Follow the spanish mackerel schools and you’ll find the kings. They are running from about 18-25 feet of water. I have been spotting tarpon rolling in the 10,000 Islands everyday for the last two weeks with no luck. Most of the fish are in the deep channels of the main passes of the upper islands. The one thing that I have been catching when I have tried is bull sharks. We hooked two on Saturday around 70-pounds each. We got one to the boat and the other finally chewed through the leader. Spanish mackerel from 18-24 inches are running from Marco River to Everglades City. Look offshore from 1-3 miles out. Spoons, jigs, and live sardines are catching silly amounts of nice sized mackerel from 2-4 pounds. Other catches for the week were the large numbers of ladyfish that are common in the winter and plenty of smallish jack crevelle. Russ even caught a redfish on a live sardine in one of the snook holes. Reds aren’t uncommon this time of year but for the past two weeks reds have been scarce for my trips. Bluefish in the 5-pound range are running near the bait schools on most of the wrecks near shore. The forecast for the next few days is excellent and if the next front isn’t to hard it will continue to be good. They key to the snook will be to catch big sardines. You might be able to find a few that will eat jigs tipped with shrimp or small beach shiners but they will respond better to the 4-6 inch sardines. Good Luck! Capt. Scott Hughes Blackwater Charters 863-946-9171 www.blackwatercharters.com [email protected]