Cape Coral - Fort Myers - Sanibel
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Had 3 generations of fisherman on board, with Father, Uncle, son and grandson on board. Davids son Jeremy, our youngest angler on board at 9 yrs old was ready for a great day of fishing. We met up at the docks at the bokeelia boat ramp at 630 but delayed our departure for a bit as we had a crazy amount of patchy fog. We pushed off the dock at the first sign of daylight and made our way out thru Boca Grande pass. We tryed the bouys for bait, but it was non existent. The hot zone for bait was the 50 ft zone with lots of spanish sardines, pinfish and a handful of blue runners coming aboard. We pushed on out to our first stop in about 80 feet with a bunch of lane and vermillion snapper coming up. Jeremy was first on the board with a solid 23" grouper caught on a whole squid.
After a few non productive drifts, we pushed on out a little further. We stopped in about 100 feet where we added another legal size grouper to the box. The fish were there but just not chewing real consistent the first part of the day. We bounced around to a few more areas where we continued to catch snapper and a few short red grouper, but nothing for the box. Made the call to run out to an area just shy of 110 ft and it was game on. We boxed another 6 keeper red grouper ranging from 21-26 inches. A handful of beautiful AMerican Red Snapper were caught, along with 4 Gag Grouper that also had to be released. A doormat size trigger fish was landed (also released). We switcghed up gears and managed a few more snapper, along with a beautiful mangrove snapper that went over 20". Weather layed down to 2 ft or less for our ride home. Lots of meat for these boys and a trip Im sure young Jeremy will remember for a long time. I had a group of 3 teenagers and dad looking to bend some rods on a 5 hr nearshore trip. We met and launched from the pine island co op. We fished in depths from 38-50 ft with rods bent from start to finish. We caught a mess of different species, and there were a few decent sized fish in the bunch as well. Though the group decided they didnt want to keep any fish as they were leaving that night, several 15-16" lane snapper, a bunch of short gag grouper, large grunts, short red grouper, and the highlight being a would be legal 20" red grouper. All in all a great day with super calm conditions.
I had a group of 2 guys here on vacation from Germany. They said they'd fished all over the world and were looking forward to the trip. We left the pine island co op around 645 out thru redfish pass in search of some meat for a few meals, then on to some bigger fish. We picked up some great bait in about 50 ft of water, with some horse threadfins, large spanish sardines, blue runners, squirrels and pinfish rounding out the full livewell. We made our first stop in about 85 feet of water which produced some decent lane snapper and at least 3 or 4 BIG hits from fish that took my crew to town. Broke off as the fish got back to their haunts. We made another drift or two and the bite slowed so outward we poked. Next stop was in 90ish feet and we proceeded to put 3 keeper red grouper in the boat, the bigger one a bit over 27". Here, too, we missed a few Big Bites that were surely bruiser grouper. With plenty of fish for a few meals, we made a move out to some higher relief structure in 110 ft. We dropped down blue runners which were engorged by some AJs. We landed 2 juveniles as well as two that were pushing 40" to the fork. In between AJs, the flat line on the 4000 spinner went off and a 10 lb cuda was landed. As we started to run low on bait, I sent down a pinfish on the flatline... About 5 minutes later, it was inhaled and the 6500 spinner was singing. After a bunch of back and forth fight, a giant cuda surfaced, hooked just right with the circle hook in the corner of its mouth and not even a touch of fraying on the 60 lb mono leader.
Weather layed down for a great comfy ride back in. Both the guys thanked me and said it was their best day of fishing, ever. Had a group of 6 guys staying on Ft Myers Beach looking for an offshore fishing trip. The guys were down for a bachelor party fishing trip, and unfortunately they had been cancelled on. I had a cancellation for Sunday and the weather looked prime, so I said lets roll! We met up at the Punta Rassa boat ramp at 0630 and pushed out into the blue. We stopped to pick up a mix of live baits on the sabiki before continuing our run. I marked a few shows. The first 3 shows I would have one guy drop down a piece of cut bait to "prospect". Each first drop resulted in a keeper grouper coming aboard. We would circle back around and drift the areas again with 6 lines , all with different baits, and we wouldnt catch another keeper. grouper.. We pushed out deeper and deeper. It wasnt a crazy on fire bite, but between the snapper and shorts, the rods stayed bent and we continued to add away at a great fish box. We hit one area which didn't have much of a show, but gave it a shot as it had a slight roll that fell off a few feet in a short distance. This area resulted in 4 keeper grouper making the box and we missed a few more nice ones here too. We tried hitting a newfound wreck for some ajs, but they werent in the mood to cooperate. Instead, we had a few cudas hook up along with a few nice 17-18" lane snappers.
The weather was perfect, lots of laughs and smiles, and a great day. We ended up with 11 Red Grouper In the box, 1 short of our 6 man limit, ass well as a handful of nice lane snappers. Headed out for a father son offshore fishing trip. We launched out of bokeelia and ran out thru Boca grande pass. No bait at the buoys, but picked up lots in the 50ft range. Squirrel fish, blue runners, pinfish and Spanish sardines rounded out the livewell. First stop was at Charlie's reef which looked like a parking lot. For a Friday there were a ton of boats out. We didn't stay long, but managed a few hookups that came unglued along with one barracuda that was landed. Ran a bit south to try and find ajs and it just seemed that every spot was full of people and fished hard. We hit some good marks in between spots to put some meat in the box. Kevin hooked up first with a solid 29" red grouper followed by another at 26". David followed suit adding a 23 and 21 inch fish to round out their red grouper limit. Weather was fantastic all day and I'm glad it was as we put alot of miles under the keels today. Look forward to seeing you guys again next year!
Had a postponed trip from Sunday wanting to get out offshore before heading back home. Today was the best of the available days and we decided to go ahead and run out. The group was used to fishing for bass and other freshwater fish out of ponds, and was looking for a fun time. Nothing screams more fun to me than some hard pulling reef donkeys (aka Amberjack).
We left punta rassa at 7AM for our charter offshore Sanibel island. First call of duty was to pick up some live bait. A dozen or so blue runners, some pinfish and squirrel fish rounded out the livewell. The seas were a washing machine with some large swell and chop going all different directions. We pushed on out to our destination. We we're greated almost immediately by a small school of ajs. Fired in a live runner and it was game on. We had a ton of hookups today, but our landed fish ratio wasn't great. We went 3 for 15 on landed fish and had one other leader touch that came off at the boat. Some of the fish we're bruisers that got us back to the structure after long runs. Another straightened out an 8/0 2x strong circle hook. It was a very fun day and the guys were left with ultra sore and tired arms. Going to be hard for them to look at a Bass the same after that! The weather finally laid down for us for our run back in. We saw a handful of porpoises as well as a bunch of turtles, one of which was a giant leatherback. Always a cool site. So March seems to be giving us a pretty good amount of wind, but in between we find a few days of calm and try to get out. Tuesday looked to be the best window and we took advantage of it.
Headed out for an offshore fishing trip with a group of four for a 3/4 day trip out of Bokeelia. We pushed off the dock at 630AM and made the run out to find some grouper and snapper. Our first stop was in 95 ft of water, which produced the first keeper grouper for the box at 24 inches. After a quick drift and only a dozen or so short red grouper, we moved on out a little deeper. Here, we spent the majority of the rest of our fishing time pulling up American Red Snapper and some nice Red grouper. The big girl went a little over 30 inches. The bite was nice and steady until we caught a juvenille Tiger Shark. After this, the bite turned off like a light switch. We moved back in a bit and got on to the some good size lanes and Vermillion snapper. A bunch more grouper we're caught but all shorts. We had a great day out with beautiful weather. |
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January 2026
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