Marco Island, Ft. Myers & Boca Grande

Tropical Storm puts a damper on the fishing For the past five days we have had very breezy weather and now we have rain and its down right windy. This has pretty much erased some pretty good fishing that we were having. Before the weather came in we were still enjoying some excellent tarpon fishing. In fact, we caught a 180 pounder the last day that I got out last week. That is a large tarpon for any time of year but its especially large for a fall tarpon. We have been targeting tarpon in the upper reaches of Charlotte Harbor trolling large lipped plugs. The key to the bites was to fish around the bait schools and the birds that follow the bait. There was also some good tarpon action along the beaches. Again, thse beach tarpon were keying on bait schools. The flats weren't on fire last week but we had plenty of action on upper slot redfish. We used cut sardines and ladyfish under the bushes during the higher tides and plastics out on the flats during low tide. Some snook were mixed in each day. Most were just under the 28-inch minimum slot. I'm seeing alot more trout on the flats this year than I did last year. If we don't get any red tide we should see a return of our great trout fishery. The deeper grass beds in the 4-6 ft range are holding countless number of sublegal trout while the shallow potholes are holding the 18-20 inch fish. Soft plastics on a jighead is all that is need to have some fun and some good eating. Within a few days of this weather clearing out the fishing should be back to normal. Look for the tarpon to be around the bait and the reds and snook to feeding on the flats. Remember that trout season closes on November 1st so its all catch and release for them. Good Luck! Capt. Scott Hughes Blackwater Charters 941-628-4247 cell 941-575-2389 home