by Capt. Larry Conley
If you want to catch some big fish from Ft. Myers Beach, get on a 30 or 48-hour trip and go out a hundred miles or so and start fishing with us! We might only fish a spot for 15 minutes or so and if there is no action we’ll move on to the next spot and maybe stay for an hour or so. Sometimes the bottom machine will mark lots and lots of fish and all rods go off and everyone on board is catching fish. I’ve also seen everybody hooked up and everybody break off for one reason or another – you never know! Big fish are very strong and it’s a long way up from 193 feet or more. Weather plays a big part in fishing offshore. We like the winds to be light and sometimes you’re going to get rained on. Spool up fresh with 50-80lb test line. I prefer braided line over the mono as the stretch of mono makes it a little harder to feel the bite 190 feet down, 60lb leader is a good choice and circle hooks a must. Bring plenty of bait as you don’t want to run out! We bring about 75 lbs. of frozen threadfin and 10-12 lbs. of squid sometimes a hundred live pinfish too. If you buy pinfish, make sure they are lively with no red spots. Ask if they were netted or caught on hook and line – hook and line is much better. A better idea is to catch your own using a little piece of shrimp on a size 16 hook works really well. Red snapper, red gag, and scamp grouper are common and mangrove yellowtail snapper are plentiful at night. If we happen to get a blackfin tuna, we clean it immediately and put it on ice as they are really good raw! On our last trip, it was a dead zone from 110-180 feet of water but 193 was a slam with red snapper and 108 feet was really good on the red grouper.