Fort Myers fishing report
Capt. Scott Hughes
January 26, 2009
Fort Myers - Saltwater Fishing Report
I've only been on the water three time in the past ten days. We are just comming off a majore cold snap with temperatures that dipped into the upper 20's inland and low 30's on the coast. We actually had frost on Pine Island two mornings last week.
How did the cold front change the fishing? It didn't. The water temps went from 73 degrees to 56 degrees in just a few days but the fish never moved. I'm catching the fish right where i was before the cold front. In fact there are a lot more redfish now than there was before. I think that it has more to do with the longer days than the weather. As we move toward spring and summer, we have more daylight. This have motivated the redfish to come out of hiding and move into the shallow water to find food. These redfish are hungry and are not used to anglers or baots yet. The last couple of days has produced double digit reds up to ten pounds on both love bait and jigs. I am also finding alot of gator tour in the same areas as the reds. Look for soft bottom that averages less than 12 inches deep. The darker bottom is the warmerst and the softer bottom has the most grubs, crabs and shrimp. A lot of these trophy sized trout are full of roe so i would expect to see these fish to start oving out to the deeper flats near the passes within a month or so.
I am also finding alot of pompano on the flats. We are catching them with shrimp, jigs and MR17 Mirrolures. Most of the pompano are nice 3-4 pounders. I have heard that are large schools of them on the outsiede bars and that would make sence if i finding singles in 12-24 inches of water on the flats.
I did take one trip up the river last week when the cold front was bearing down on us. We left the ramp with temperature in the low 40's and a stiff north wind ar 20-25. It was ugly. We found a few schools of jacks in the 10-20 pound class and everyone hooked up with soft plastics and crank baits. We also picked up a few snook that were warming themselves in the shallows and I had a brief hook-up of a tarpon in the 120 pound range with 1/4 oz jig and 10 pound test line. I mean it was brief. Like two seconds.
Fort Myers Fishing Forecast:
I predict that more redfish will move into the shallow water and will start to school up sometime next month. The trout will start moving to deeper water and more near the passes and snook fishing will get alot better. Don't expect to get any tarpon reports until late March unless I get the itch and go down to the 10,000 islands
Target Species:
Redfish, Trout, Pompano, Snook, Jacks, Tarpon
