Marco Island, Ft. Myers & Boca Grande

Snook Feista! Again snook fishing has had to take up the slack of tarpon fishing. High winds coupled with a low number of tarpon this year made tarpon fishing almost impossible for most of my charters this week. That was ok for most because snook fishing has been excellent. We boated a minimum of 20 snook per day and on one day last week we caught 41 snook in a half day of fishing. Most of the fish were just under the 26-34 inch slot but most days produced a number of nice slot fish mixed in with an over slot fish here and there. The snook ate a variety of baits including thread herring, sardines, pinfish, gunts and parrot fish. One day was blowing out of the southwest at 20-30 knots which made snook fishing even out of the question. We salvaged a half-day of fishing by catching a mixed bag of trout, spanish mackerel and jack crevelle. We threw a variety of plastics including Love's Lure's swimming minnows. Pearl and glow/chartuese worked best. We hit grass flats near big sand bars in Charlotte Harbor. For those of you hoping to use this report for reference on an upcomming fishing trip, take it with a grain of salt. Over the past two days we have received a total of 15 inches of rain and it is still comming down now. When I go back out this week everything could be different. There is going to be a huge reduction of salt in the harbor and Pine island sound. This can affect bait and will push certain species out to offshore waters. Good Luck! Capt. Scott Hughes Blackwater Charters 941-575-2389