Cape Coral - Fort Myers - Sanibel
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Had Joe and Rick from Boston down on vacation looking to bend some rods. We left from the Punta Rassa boat ramp in fort myers for an offshore fishing trip off sanibel. Met up around 7AM and headed out around the lighthouse. The small fry bait is pretty thick right now just off the beaches, and there were lots of spanish macks free jumping and eating well. We put out a spoon and a yo zuri minnow and picked up a few. We had one decent king hit that ran off some line but came unglued. We moved on out to 50 ft of water and it was pretty barren. Moved on out to 65 ft and we got into the Lanes and Jolt Head Porgies pretty good. My group didn't want to keep any fish, but we would have had a good 50-60 keepers today in a short window. We had a few red grouper, most of which were small in the 12-14 inch range. We had one that came in about a 1/2 inch short of the 20" minimum. The action was pretty steady with your baits getting hit nearly immediately and the hot bait was cut squid on either a knocker rig or carolina rig. Sea conditions were great and it continued to lay down as we ran back in. Was a fun day out on the water...
Monday the 26th I headed out with 3 gentleman for a deep sea fishing trip targetting grouper and snapper. We met up at the bokeelia boat ramp and we're underway by 630 AM. We made the run out thru Boca grande pass picking up some live hardtails, pinfish and squirrel fish for bait. We had great weather all day with the waves getting smaller as the day went on. We started off at a spot in roughly 85 ft of water. We managed a couple nice jolthead porgies, a red hind grouper (tried to release but it just wouldn't go down, so in the box it went), a small under size scamp, and Sal had a nice one on that came unglued part ways up. We made a move in out to 100 ft where we plugged away at the Vermilion and Lane snapper. Joe sent down a hard tail and was shortly greeted by a gorgeous 27inch red grouper. The tide swing a bit and we drifted off the area, so we picked up the anchor and did a few drifts. Sal picked up 2 nice fat mangrove snapper for the box. Jack sent down a live pinfish which was inhaled by a fat 29 inch red grouper. The bite was pretty consistent all day with lots of throwback snapper and grunts. Had a great time with you guys and look forward to getting out with you again.
Finally got a decent weather day to shoot out and look for some fish offshore. My group of 4 met at the Bokeelia Boat ramp at 630 AM, headed out Boca Grande Pass with beautiful slick calm conditions. We picked up a handful of tomtates, pinfish, blue runners and squirrels on the way out.
We made a quick drop over a show i that resulted in a couple nice porgies in 80 ft of water before continuing out to roughly 100 ft. We fished some rock and live bottom areas which resulted in some nice Lanes, Vermillion and Red Grouper. Marked a bunch of fish that I am pretty sure were mangroves from previous trips, but could only get 1 to cooperate. Im pretty sure the full moon played a big part in the bite. We put together a decent box with 3 decent Red Grouper and lost 4 or 5 "Big Mommas" that outright beat them to the hole, or straightened out 7/0 circle hooks. |
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January 2026
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