Marco Island, Ft. Myers & Boca Grande

Snook season closes and Trout season's about to open. December 15th marked the closing of snook season. New years day marks the opening of speckled trout season. That's a good thing because the snook are getting harder to find the trout are getting easier. Look for the trout to be on the drop offs of heavy grass flats. Larger trout will hold in shallower water along with redfish and the smaller slot sized trout will generally be in 3-5 ft of water. I like to use a variety of soft plastics rigged either weedless or on a lead head jig. Redfishing is holding strong even though breezy conditions have made sightfishing difficult. We are seeing a lot of the lower slot reds this winter so we should have a good crop of upper slot fish this summer if people don't taking to many this spring. I use soft plastics for the reds as well as the larger trout. I'll also switch to live shrimp if the bite starts to get slow. The forecast for the next few weeks is much more of the same. Trout season opens in a week or so and redfish are one of the main targets until April so things shouldn't change much. Good Luck! Capt. Scott Hughes Blackwater Charters 941-628-4247 cell