Marco Island, Ft. Myers & Boca Grande

Snook and Tarpon hit hard by record cold front We saw record numbers of snook and baby tarpon dead in Pine Island Sound and in the upper areas of the 10,000 Islands. We had low in the upper 20's and high in the low 50's for two days straight and the water temperature plumited 20 degrees in 48 hours. The good news is that alot of snook and tarpon made it up river and into the residential canals and have been biting in the last few days. The last five days after the front has proved to be quite a challenge and with some persistence we managed to put togather some decent days. Snook fishing is completely over on the flats right now but we have been catching some really nice fish in the rivers and canals using crankbaits and Fishbites soft plastics on leadhead jigs. The key has been to fish during the middle of the day and pick sunny days rather than fish on overcast days. I have also been finding alot of tarpon in the 20-50 pound range up the rivers and in the deeper runs of the 10,000 Islands. Getting them to bite has been next to impossible. We have been throwing swim baits, crank baits and live bait with very limmited success. Out on the flats the fishing has been mainly speckled trout and jack crevelle. The trout have moved into the deeper sloughs and have been hitting Fishbites shrimp tails drug slowly on the bottom. Big jacks have been hanging up in the brackish waters up river and also on the flats all around Marco Island. Big live sardines or soft plastics have produced well. Marco has also had a bunch nice bluefish to keep the rods bent. Good Luck, Capt. Scott Hughes Blackwater Charters 941-628-4247 cell