Marco Island, Ft. Myers & Boca Grande

Some good fishing has been hampered by high winds. Evidently I have been doing something wrong. The wind gods have been punishing us all month. This doesn’t mean we haven’t been catching fish it just means that it’s been a little uncomfortable out there. In any case, the fishing is pretty good in Marco Island and Ft Myers. With the conditions being tough, live bait has been the key to successful tarpon and snook fishing. Tarpon fishing in Marco Island has been consistent. Live baits drifted in front of schooling fish or soaked in the area passes are still producing good catches. The bites are not coming with the same frequency that they were during the last week of March. One reason is that the fish are more scattered. Tarpon can now be caught all the way from Everglades City to Boca Grande Pass and the bridges up Charlotte Harbor. Snook fishing is on the rise with better catches this week than in the previous few months. Some very large snook are moving into the outer passes and points off the outer islands. Live sardines are always my favorite bait to use for the large spring snook. It shouldn’t be too difficult to catch a well full. Schools of thread herring are all over the outside in about 10-20 feet. Scaled sardines can be found near the passes in shallow water. Redfish have extremely rare in the Marco area. This is partly true because most guides have been focusing on tarpon. The one place that holds good redfish all year is the flats of northern Pine Island Sound. There have been good redfish catches around the bushes of the eastern side of Pine Island. Shrimp, pinfish, sardines, herring, and cut ballyhoo are my favorites this time of year. If you like sharks, we’ve got them. We have been catching up to ten sharks on just about every trip for the past month. Hammerheads in the 4-6 ft range are common catches while tarpon fishing and bulls to 100 pounds have been caught in the passes. A half dozen 15 pound blacktips have also been normal for the past few weeks. Live sardines have caught the majority but a half a mullet has caught the big ones. Trout fishing has not been my first, second, or third priority for me. I have been hearing of some good catches coming from the flats south of Pavilion Key. The flats across from Buck Key in Pine Island Sound have also produced well. The trout should be moving toward the passes like the snook and big live baits will produce the larger fish. A sure bet for action right now is mackerel. Huge schools of spanish are moving north and tearing up glass minnows. Spoons and jigs work very good but my favorite is a small clouser minnow. It’s not uncommon to catch a limit of macks on a fly and have most of them over 18 inches. Good Luck! Capt. Scott Hughes Blackwater Fishing Charters