Marco Fishing Report
9-7-07:
September fishing for your keeper Snook is now upon us. Numerous large Snook, many above the slot limit, are still being caught on the nearshore wrecks. The best time is sun up until 8:30 or so and 6:30 until dark. The best bait has been large white bait or 6" Gulp Pogies with a 1 oz white jig head. Concentrate on shallow wrecks from 20 to 35 feet and use heavy tackle as many Goliath Grouper are waiting for an easy Snook dinner as well.
Inshore the Redfish are biting in better numbers on jigs and live bait.
9-09-07:
What a morning the wind was blowing about 25 knots from the South so we changed plans and worked between points on the leeward side of various islands. We used two combinations of jigs in pink and red/white tipped with Shrimp. Also neon/white jig heads and Berkley Gulp jerk shad were the ticket to 3 nice Snook with 1 in the slot and two slot sized redfish before 9:00 AM. Mixed in were numerous Snapper and Jacks. The bite slowed considerably by late morning as the winds created an abnormally high tide and the fish moved out of reach of baits. We still managed a few more smaller Snook and Mangrove Snapper. Water Temperature had dropped considerably to 84.2*.
9-15-07: Today we started by fishing the last two hours of the falling tide near the outside points. The water clarity was very good, in fact we were able to sight fish both Snook and Redfish, although the Snook were mostly unresponsive to jigs and live bait the Redfish bite was very good. We did manage to catch numerous Snook all under the slot and Redfish with one in the slot, the best bite was on Mangrove Snapper. They hit everything we threw at them at one point landing fish on at least ten consecutive casts. The water temp was 86* with NE winds 5-10.
10-14-07
Fished the last of the outgoing tide which was well below the published 1 foot due to the 15mph NE winds. The bite was slow until the tide turned incoming. We fished the first cuts inside along mangrove shorelines and netted three nice Redfish the largest 25.5" and numerous under sized Snook. Red 1/4 oz jigs with berkly gulp "nuclear chicken" and red w/white bucktail jigs also produced well.
01-09-08 Update:
What a busy two months with the Holidays and all, but lets get up to speed on the Saltwater Fishing here. The cold snap last week dropped the water temperature down to 58* in the backcountry. We did see some Snook that were unable to find shelter from the cold and died. Most appeared to have make it though. Fishing last Saturday yielded numerous Snook in the deeper pockets of water on the high tide during the afternoon. Light colored softbaits worked very slowly on the bottom produced well.
As of 1/9/08 the water around Marco was back to 67*. Until the next cold snap fishing should be excellent both in the back for Reds and out front for Pompano. Use bright colored skirted jigs (pink, chartruese or white) tipped with a piece of shrimp on the flats out front of Marco, Caxambas or South of Cape Romano for the Pompano.
4-25-08:
The spring bite is on in full swing. Tarpon can be found just offshore moving north in schools with average size 80 to 100 pounds. Set up well in front of the moving school and wait for them to come to you. Live ladyfish or 8" mullet will usually do the trick. Offshore the bite for Grouper is still red hot with keepers taken inside of nine miles along the ledge at the 35-38' mark. Inshore snook and reds have been biting well last weekend the water temp was 76* and we caught numerous fish working points within 1/2 mile of the gulf on the morning incoming tide using tipped jigs.
5-11-08: Light SSW 5-10 kt winds had seas less than 2 feet. Worked the 10 mile ledge north to south ending up near the "hornet" landed numerous red grouper using cut mullet, only one in the slot. Our 2nd stop netted 23 sharks both lemon and blacktip with one 8+foot nurse shark. Suprisingly, we had three kingfish take freelined shrimp on the surface. One of the Kings was over 20# but was lost on a screaming run.
7-19-09: Summer pattern in full swing with Snook everywhere. In fact every stop today yielded at least one snook. The snapper bite was especially hot today nearly 50 landed total. Used a variety of jigs: red/white buck tail, chartruese with "nuclear chicken" gulp was also a winner. The bite slowed considerably by 10:00AM, the high tide at caxambas pass was about 9:30AM. Water clairity was exceptionally clear and hot 92*. Lots of bait including pinfish, greenies and mullet.