Marco Island, Ft. Myers & Boca Grande

More Wind.......More Tarpon The unpredictable windy weather has made fishing a very difficult task most of the week. Southwest winds at 15-20 knots have made the water muddy and made fishing for tarpon on the outside impossible. Never the less, we did manage to hook up on large tarpon every day last week. Remember I said “hook up” not land. This time of the year almost all of my efforts are for tarpon. Despite the conditions, my customers have been determined to go in search for tarpon and I’m always eager to try for a tarpon. Good tarpon fishing is as far north as the Marco Island passes and as far south as you want to run. The preferred bait is a live sardine, thread herring or menhaden. When the seas are calm you can run south off the shoreline and look for pods of rolling or free jumping. Try to get in front of them and drift or cast the bait in their direction. On the very windy days (which have been almost every day) we have spending our time fishing the passes. The tarpon are hitting mullet, but we hooked up a few with very large menhaden and scaled sardines. Cast net mullet in the backcountry and run to the passes to catch the tarpon. Also, the largest spanish mackerel of the season are running near shore. The tripod marker in Big Marco Pass is holding some good schools of spanish and even some small kingfish. We also caught a mess of 23-26 inch spanish while drifting for tarpon just off Round Key. Sheephead are in the deep holes and cuts around the passes and some small snook are starting to show up around the beaches and passes. Their bite has still been on the slow side. Large trout are taking live sardines around the mangroves on the south side of Marco Island. Jacks are scattered around the islands and the passes and are taking live baits, jigs and plugs. I don’t have a whole lot to report from the Ft Myers area. I haven’t had a chance to talk to my buddies who strictly fish that area and with tarpon fishing a priority for most of my customers I don’t expect to fish that far north until late April. I’ll try to get more from that area next week. Good Luck! Capt. Scott Hughes Blackwater Fishing Charters