Fishing Report Overview
After a super warm first 2 weeks of Feb, winter was bound to make a appearance sooner or later. and it came in with a vengeance on Feb 26th with lots of wind and much colder temps. Water temps were in the high 70’s by Presidents Day and the fishing was great! Our Ft Myers fly fishing clients were starting to catch Tarpon on the 18th of Feb which is very early for them to start biting, but it has happened in the past several times. The Spec Trout have made a surprising and rapid comeback in Estero Bay. For the better part of 2 yrs they were nearly gone and then starting around the 4th of July the Spec Trout started showing up with increasing regularity in the Fort Myers and Ft Myers Beach areas.
Fort Myers Fishing Report – Current Conditions
The winds have and negative tides have left the water in most of Estero Bay and surrounding areas very muddy. The fish will take a few days to adapt to this change but they will keep on biting. If you are planning to go fishing soon, or book a Fort Myers Light Tackle Charter with us, remember the following. Be sure that you slow down your presentations, give the fish time to find your lure. If you are fishing a poping cork and bait we have found that counting to 10 before popping the cork again is about right. The will hear the cork, but need time to zero in on exactly where the noise came from. Our bait of choice in the winter is Berkley Gulp in the shrimp shape, I’m not sure color makes much difference. We are using the new penny color primarily because we bought them in bulk last year. Everything seems to love eating it and it will stay on the hook for hours. Try fishing a gold spoon with a plastic trailer reeling it just fast enough to keep it off the bottom, this has always been a top presentation in muddy water, just remember to keep it slow.
Fort Myers Fishing Report – Outlook For The Next Few Days
Looks like a warming trend will help boost water temps back into the 70’s especially since the wind if forecast to keep blowing. So conditions wont change much from what is out there now. The mud is here to stay for a while which means everyday the fishing will improve as the fish acclimate to the new normal for them. Just keep it slow and try lures that can be fished slow and give of lots of flash.
Great News – FWC Extends Catch and Release Through May 31 2021
The estuaries of SW Florida took a beating from the 2017 red tide event and have rebounded tremendously. What the fishery really needed was another year of catch and release and FWC came through with the extension
Report By:
Capt Eric Anderson
Capt Scott Anderson
What A Hawg Charters – Fort Myers, FL