With the corona virus situation in The Fort Myers area what it is, we feel it is more important than ever to give you an up-to-date Fort Myers fishing report, and we will try to post new fishing reports as often as we can. Even though our clients can’t travel right now nor would it be safe for them, we continue to be on the water as often as possible. So you can look forward to Fort Myers fishing reports as often as we can post them. We hope everyone stays well, and we firmly believe that our economy will come back stronger than ever from this event as we bring critical manufacturing back to our country from overseas.
Fort Myers Fishing Report Overview
Luckily the negative tides are about done for this year which will give everyone more access to the flats shortly. It wasn’t bad this morning and by 8:00 AM there was plenty water. The first thing you need to look for is clean water, for some reason there are areas that are very clear and others that look like to Mississippi. I don’t claim to be a hydrologist or a tide expert but no doubt the muddy water has something to do with the sediment on the bottom and how easily it gets mixed into the water column as the tide flows out and back in.
Best Fishing Spots In The Fort Myers Area
With that in mind there are a bunch of ladyfish in just about any place with some clear water and structure. The edges of oyster bars, channel edges, potholes and other structure that creates an edge is holding ladyfish and spec trout. The spec trout seem to be moving out to the edge of the channels because of the water temperature nearing 80° or slightly exceeding 80 in the afternoons, water that warm is not their favorite so look for them hugging the bottom off the edge of the flats in the deepest water adjacent where your fishing. The ICW and any of the side channels are the best place to look for specs on the negative tide days it doesn’t seem like moving back onto the flats until dark. So break out a jig put on some Berkeley gulp to reduce the number of catfish bites and remember I said “reduce” and bounce the jig off the bottom.
Use The Right Lure
Use your electronics to look for schools of fish, this will help you eliminate a lot of empty water. It’s fairly easy to identify a school from the surrounding bottom as you’ll see a bunch of marks in vertical columns as much as 4 to 6 feet off the bottom. Drop your jig to the bottom give it a snap and let it quickly dropback and see what bites you might be surprised. In addition to the specs there are also quite a few Spanish mackerel large Jack’s and now with this warmer weather Snook are moving into the mix. We’ve also had good luck this winter catching Gag Grouper and Cobia with this technique.
Make sure you are using at least a half ounce to a ¾ ounce jig head so you can get to the bottom in a hurry with the current. Give your out a sharp snap of about a foot and let the bait drop straight back to the bottom and get ready to get bit. They will always hit it while it’s falling, that fast snap off the bottom gets their attention and the quick drop back triggers a reflex strike because they don’t want it to get away. Remember that speed is your friend in the ocean particularly now that the water is warming up close to 80° in the afternoon and that is warm enough for fish to swim faster than anything you can retrieve so don’t worry about fishing a jig too fast there’s no way you can.
Okay that’s it for this fort myers fishing report look for more reports coming on a daily or every other day basis and we will keep our promise to keep the reports coming for all of you that can’t get on the water. If you’d like to see some tutorial videos showing these techniques in more detail send me email and wall put some together since we have the time right now. Everyone stay safe and healthy.
Tight Lines…
Next Fort Myers Fishing report Coming Soon.
Capt Eric Anderson
What A Hawg Charters