Cape Coral - Fort Myers - Sanibel
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Picked up a father and son duo looking to get some grouper and snapper for the freezer. They were staying at South Seas resort on Sanibel Island. Picked them up at a few minutes before 7 AM and headed out thru redfish pass. It was a little smokey/foggy, so I fired up the radar and set the autopilot on our coarse... we ran into a nice ball of bait out in the 60 ft range. Picked up about 100 live spanish and scaled sardines along with a couple runners for good measure. a handful of pins and squirrels rounded out the livewell. We pushed out and made our first drops in 100 ft of water. Despite an amazing show on the fishfinder, only a few small red grouper were brought up. Our lines kept coming up with thick, green moss.... essentially it actually suffocated our baits it was so thick.... We switched it up and made a run a few miles away. we dropped down different baits and again, only some short red grouper coming up. Moved another 1/4 mile and we were promptly rewarded with some nice fat mangrove snapper. The big one of the day went 22". The bite slowed down and i made another 1/2 mile run to some more grouper grounds. The tide appeared to finally be moving and we caught 2 nice grouper our first drift. The second drift resulted in another 2 keeper red grouper almost immediately fulfilling our limit of red grouper for the day. We headed back in with smiles.
Had a 3/4 day trip today. The fishing trip had a pickup out of South seas resort on Sanibel at 7AM. Was a bit windy but it didn't slow the Salty Beast down. We roared out at a solid and comfy 28 mph. Picked up lots of squirrels and ran out towards the grouper grounds. Throttled down with a nice show in 100 ft of water. First rod down was a Penn 4500 spinfisher with matching light tackle rod. I call this my "prospector rod", to see if its just a pile of bait, snapper, or target species grouper. Takes a while to get down with 2 ounces of weight. Bait gets inhaled by a stud grouper. Tom fights him up and off bottom but unfortunately loses it to the 3/0 circle hook being straightened out. Out comes the large tackle. Fish on, Tom fights and lands a 32 inch firetruck. Next three or 4 baits down hook up to big fish but come unglued. As if someone flipped the switch, the bite died. Make a small move, Kathy hooks up to a solid fish, 28.5" hits the deck. Repeat drift with only an 18" rg coming up. Moved around a bit more and was able to hook up and land another 25.5" RG. Lots of quality today. They will be eating well.
Saturday weather gods didnt want us to play predicting a strong afternoon blow, so my saturday group will be out sometime with me in the future.
Sunday the 6th looked much better and we had good conditions. We pushed off of the Pine Island Co op around 7AM and headed out for some bait. We were fluid on our game plan and I let the conditions dictate the day. While looking for bait, it was squirrel fish city. After many drops and lots of searching, it became clear we wouldnt have the blue runners Id have liked to hit the wrecks for some bigger ajs, but with a load of squirrel fish, the decision was made to go look for some grouper. We headed out a good 40 miles or so and fished depths from 110 to 125 ft of water. The bite was insane. We would drop down live squirrel fish and they would get inhaled. I think we broke off and lost 3x as many fish as we landed. The fish that were breaking us off were BIG fish, likely 30" and better. We didnt hook a single fish that had a hook in its mouth, so I know there are a ton still down there. The guys did a great job of killing the beer as well as the grouper. They didnt get frustrated by the lost fish, instead getting more motivated and fishing hard. They worked for their box, but were rewarded with a solid limit of Red Groupers. We blasted the music all day and had lots of laughs. I look forward to having your crew out again. Friday headed out with a group of six looking for some rod bending fun.They came from Cincinnati where they fished for largemouth and other freshwater fish.We left Pineland marina and found the mother load of bait out in about 55 ft of water. Picked up about 3 dozen blue runners and a handful of pins before running out to find some ajs, cudas and anything else looking to eat.
We were rewarded with drag screaming runs and epic battles all day. Many an aj were boated along with a ton of fish that had their way and got back to the wreck. A few were lost 1/2 way up to Giant Goliath Groupers that took hold and would run 150 yds of line straight back to their lair. We had several barracuda that would chase down and engulf a lively blue runner and then scream off drag and go airborn before throwing the hook. Nothing like watching a cuda shoot 30+ feet ithru the air in an attempt to rid himself of the hook. These were big fish, 30-50 lbers.... The saying for the day was: "guys, were not in cincitttati anymore..." I had a great time with your crew and loved seeing the smiles and hearing the "wows" as we hooked, fought and landed some of these beasts... I am awaiting the pics from my group, but will get them up soon. |
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January 2026
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