# Fishing In Fort Myers



## Chiteface (Oct 15, 2006)

I am coming down to Ft. Myers the week of Thanksgiving. I am bringing down a noodle rod that I use for salmon up here. I want to know some techniques and tackle for surf and also off the pier in Ft. Myers. I will probably surf fish mostly on Cayo Costa Island. Any kind of fishing report would be great too. Thanks.


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## yogai (Oct 21, 2005)

I haven't done much fishing from the Ft. Myers Pier, but from most of the stuff I've seen and heard, a noodle rod is gonna be hard to work with for anything but the shallow areas and small fish


But for the smaller fish like mangrove snappers, sand bream, sheepies, and whiting, a noodle will probably work fine. Just use an 18" 30 lb leader with a 1/2-1 oz egg sinker and a barrel swivel at the top, a small mustad hook with a decent length shank. Use smallish live shrimp. Run the hook in between the tailfins and out around the head so the snappas and sheepies can't snatch it off. Let the shrimp roll around near a piling in 3-5 ft of water and be ready to set the hook soon as you feel a thump. This might be tough because of the flexibility of your rod. fighting also might be tough because you don't have very long to muscle them in before you get wrapped. But you should have some fun on the pier with snappas and such (and their the best eating fish, so that's what I would fish for anyway. make sure you keep a snapper or two and bake/fry it. mmmmmmm) 10 inches at the tip limit)

As for the surf, you might get some of the fall pomps or whiting with a small pompano jig, which you can ask about at the bait shops. Or just puttin out a sand flea with the same leader rig but a small bank or pyramid sinker in shallow water will work. Overall though, I must say that it'll be tough to do much with the super light action of most noodle rods. andy basic 6-7 foot medium spinning rod with 10-20 lb mono will give you much less trouble if you have one.

I also will suggest, as I have before, some other spots. 

1. My favorite- Matlacha bridge. Matlacha is this kinda low-income little island shrimping town with a big draw bridge and several smaller bridges really close to eachother. The snapper fishing there is amazing. You can also catch just about everything else. Sheepies, rays, jacks, spanish macks, spadefish, hardhead catfish, tarpon, ladyfish, jewfish, snook, redfish, seatrout, whiting, pinfish, grunts, cobias, and more. A light rig like the above one and small shrimp will catch a limit of snapper in no time. It's just a matter of walking around the bridge and finding them. Go there about 4 pm and you should stay into the evening or overnight for loads of fun. THere'll usually be other people to talk to, but the bridge is anything but crowded. I listened to some older dude's stories about the bridge for 3 hours while we were fishin together after I had just met him. That's the kinda town that matlacha is. I spent lots of hobo-ish nights on that bridge gettin my a$$ kicked by massive jewfish, rays and tarpon on my 4/0 senator and 40lb class rod. I had a ray pick up on the jigmaster and strip the 30 lb test completely off of it. and when those weren't biting, something else was. the snapper and ladyfish always kept me busy. I didn't even have to buy baitfish, because I could catch tons of pinfish on tiny hooks with teeny bits of shrimp on them. My dad took me to the bridge a lot when I was real little, and if there's any place I could go at any time, I would pick matlacha over every world-class vacation destination in a heartbeat. There's great food real close too. However, it's pretty out of the way for most ft. myers people. It's a 30-45 minute drive depending on what part of ft. myers you're in.

Sanibel Pier- I could write a novel on this one. I caught tons of snapper, snooks, cobias, and Jewfish (okay, so I never landed the jewfish, I almost got broken in half over the pier railing). Loads of sandbream and snapper can be caught in the shallow areas that are uncrowded with a dropper loop rig. My little secret that I used to fill my cooler and the coolers of other fisherman too. But you have to pay a lot to get out there. parking fees, bridge tolls, and relentless cops probably aren't worth the hassle.


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## yogai (Oct 21, 2005)

OH SNAP! I didn't see that you'd be in cayo costa. THEN YOU GOTTA HIT UP MATLACHA! ITS RIGHT THERE. YOU HAVE TO FRIGGIN GO OVER THE BRIDGE TO GET TO CAYO COSTA. so you'll know where it is and I guarantee you you'll have fun. don't even bother with ft. myers beach area or sanibel if you're right there. if you were willing to go all the way to ft. myers pier, then just hit up matlacha bridge


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## Chiteface (Oct 15, 2006)

*Thank you*

Thank you sir I will definately take that info into account and see if I can't get my group to detour.


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## yogai (Oct 21, 2005)

you'll go over the bridge on the way to the put out point for cayo costa. You'll know where it is because it's like the only draw bridge around with a special path for fishing


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