Marco Island, Ft. Myers & Boca Grande

Flats Slam! A little bit of warmer temperatures and calmer winds really turned up the action on the flats this week. We saw a resurgence of snook this week on the flats. I fished Exude plastic jerk baits on a 1/8 oz jigheads with excellent results. We averaged over a dozen snook per day up to about 30 inches. With extremely low tides I concentrated on fishing potholes in the grassflats. The ones nearer to the mangrove lines produced more snook and less trout. Speaking of trout, trout were also all over the flats and should continue to be the rest of the winter. The trout were holding in the deeper potholes farther out on the flats. Exudes again were the best lure we tried. We did find some redfish with the tout and snook as well but the majority of our redfish action this week was fishing for tailers on the rising tide. We averaged several reds per day up to 31 inches throwing a number a different soft plastic lures. A Exude tube rigged weedless was a very good producer. Live bait has been tough but when we can get enough to chum with our snook numbers will probably double what we got this past week. I think that this time of year i can actually catch more redfish and trout using artificial lures. Its also good to have a little live bait on the boat in case you run into cobia on the flats while your looking for reds. I found cobia following rays twice this week. The first day we didn't have any live bait and the cobia didn't want any part of our lures. The next day we found them again and a 15 pounder hit a DOA CAl swim body on a 1/8 oz leadhead. Later we got a 19 pounder with a live pinfish. The forecast for the rest of the month should be much the same as now. Tailing redfish on the grassflats, trout everywhere, and snook along the migration points as they move more toward the backcountry and get ready for the winter. Good Luck! Capt. Scott Hughes Blackwater Charters 941-575-2389 home 941-628-4247 cell