Marco Island, Ft. Myers & Boca Grande

Pompano and Trout and a Permit! Last week was textbook winter fishing. Trout, pompano and ladyfish were the main catches along with a few snapper, whiting and a permit. Small jigs and lures are the preferred baits and for best results, tip them with a piece of shrimp. Fishing out of Marco Island is producing the excellent numbers of pompano up to 3-pounds. The main passes from Marco River, south to West Pass has been good places to try. We have been doing the best using white nylon or bucktail jigs tipped with a piece of shrimp. Bounce them very slowly off the bottom in about 4 to 8 feet of water near sand bars. The trout fishing has been better than the pompano fishing in the 10,000 Islands and Marco Island. Keeper sized trout are in the passes hitting pompano jigs and on the flats south of Cape Romano hitting soft plastic baits on the grass flats. There have also been concentrated pockets of legal sized trout in the islands. Concentrate in 10 feet of water where there is good current and the bottom is a mix of sand and shells. Out of Ft Myers we have been finding lots of smaller trout along the sandbars of Pine Island sound and in some of the little bays of the backcountry. We have usually been able to muster up enough keepers to make a good meal. Other than tout and pompano the only other thing going on this week was some snapper in the 10,000 Islands and whiting in Pine Island. Ladyfish were everywhere but that’s normal for this time of year. One surprise was a small permit that one of my customers landed just off Marco Island. A strong cold front is forecast to blow in tomorrow so it looks like it will be shrimp and jigs for another week or so and then we’ll start to think about tarpon and the other big boys. When the bait shows up the glamour species will be right behind. Good Luck! Capt. Scott Hughes Blackwater Charters 863-946-9171 941-628-4247 (cell) www.blackwatercharters.com [email protected]