Cape Coral - Fort Myers - Sanibel
|
RSS Feed
|
Had a split charter group Saturday for a full day offshore. Met up at pineland marina and off the docks around 645. Ride out was nice with a quarter following sea. We picked up some bait around 80-90ft before heading deeper to the wreck.
The bite on the wreck was excellent. What wasn't so excellent was the amount of cutoffs and lost weights and hooks. Every drift would produce multiple hook ups, some just downright monsters that ran right towards the wreck, other drag screamers, some going airborne. Dennis was first one to get a hookup that made it to the boat. It was a solid amberjack that measured 39" to the fork. On to ice he went for the smoker. The continued pattern of hook ups with cutoffs continued. Dave sr hooked into something big on the bottom and it took a ton of heat to bring up the estimated 7+ foot nurse shark off the bottom. pics dont do it justice... We had a few pull hooks on some long runs as well. Dave jr was next up on the screaming rod and boated a slob amberjack. Somewhere in the mayhem Philip caught a small barracuda , then had another shoot a good 30 ft on the air and across the side of the boat. It came unglued but so cool to see. Philip stayed working his Japanese jigging rod with flutter jigs and was rewarded with a hook up that made him work for his catch. He boated the biggest AJ of the day after a solid 20-30 minute fight. Everyone mutual agreed to go target some snapper and grouper as everyone was worn out! We pushed out a bit and found a pretty decent grouper bight. Dave Jr bested a solid 28+ inch red grouper, followed by Philip besting a nice 23" for the over box. Dennis worked on some porgy and snapper, and Dave sr boated 2 keeper red grouper to fill his limit. With a pretty steep head sea, we pushed on back towards Captiva pass at a 23-27 mph cruise. Not many other boats that could have ran that speed in those conditions. Was a great day with a fantastic crew. Look forward to seeing y'all out there again! Had a 1/2 day charter out of pineland today. Pushed out to our first drop in 70 ft and it was a steady pick of lane snapper and juvenile red grouper. We had a couple big things right off the bat that got back to the hole. Pushed on out a little deeper to the 78-80 ft range and the vermilion, lanes and grouper we're ready to play. We boated 2 keeper red grouper with the snapper and got 2 nice porgies as well. Should make for a fantastic dinner!
sept 22nd had full day 10-12 hr charter. Pushed out of pineland around 645 with thoughts of big fish and singing drags. The day did not disappoint.
We pushed on out past the brown water (out to roughly 60 ft now) and stopped to get some bait. Bait has not been easy to come by lately. We managed some spot tails, squirrel fish, a lone pinfish, a couple spanish sardines. We marked good bottom on the way out that produced some very nice quality lane snapper. A few short Rg came up, and then both Jill and JT's rods double over.. they both are making headway, and up pops a nice red grouper with both thier hooks...lol the fish had effectively eaten both of their baits and fought the same fish, and maybe each other a little bit. We pushed out to the wreck and deployed different baits. The fish were very willing to cooperate! The first few fish either came unglued or beat us to the wreck. Frank got hooked up and after a back and forth battle, a nice aj hits the deck. We had a bunch of cudas around and deployed a spottail on a stinger rig and pretty much hand fed him. Jill was up on that rod and had a great number of long runs before working it boatside. Next drift produced 2 small undersize ajs, followed by another tank of a fish which mark fought and worked to the boat. we swung back around and went at it again with JT getting hooked up. Another back and forth battle and another stud aj hits the deck. With everyone getting their shot and plenty of fish for the grill/smoker, we pushed on out to around 130 ft. The bite out there was awesome. Did 2 drifts thru the area which produced 7 keeper groupers, a pile of lane and vermillion snapper along with a couple porgies. We missed a couple big thumpers here as well. Overall, a fantastic day of fishing. Weather was overcast with a breeze, comfortable 2-3 ft seas all day. Not much more you can ask for! Salty Fishing Charters Had a split charter group of 6 yesterday. Met up at Pineland Marina and off the docks by 630AM. Headed out thru Captiva Pass. Didnt see a whole lot of dead fish at all (in fact only saw 1 dead fish all day, a 12" boxfish floating in 70ish feet of water). The brown watered lingered out to around 70 ft. We made a quick bait stop in 73 feet and it was covered in nice lane snapper and red grouper. Missed a couple big girls, and only managed a few pieces of bait (2 blue runners, couple grunts, couple squirrels). We Hit another spot inside 120 feet and Garon put the first keeper red grouper on ice.
A couple more BIG RGs got the best of us and several good sized lanes made their way on ice. We made at stop at a wreck to see if we could find some drag screamers... we dropped down three rods all with frozen cut bait... First rod down gets inhaled and is off to the races. It fought hard and had some great runs, so thought we had an amberjack on... As it got closer to the surface, we find out its a nice AFRICAN POMPANO. Big cheers all around the boat. Olaf did a great job working him to the boat. The other dead baits get whacked, but no hook up... I think they were big mangroves taking chunks... Deployed the smaller of the 2 Blue runners on a single hook treble rig, and it wasnt more than 10 seconds in the water before it is inhaled and a respectable cuda goes airborne. Richard handled him like a pro and made it to the boat. Tried putting out the squirrel fish but nothing seemed interested in them. Flat lined the second of the blue runners (large bait) with a 2 hook stinger rig. About 30 seconds later it gets crushed. and the fish is off to the races. it ran down and towards the wreck...Josh fought him like a seasoned vet and after a back and forth tug a war, a massive cuda comes boatside. Quick Picture and we let him go. We decided to push on out and find some more grouper and snapper. We stopped over a small show in 130 -135 ft and were rewared with a pretty steady grouper bite. We boxed another 6 keeper grouper over a couple hours, as well as some stud lanes. Erik got redemption from missing a bruiser earlier with a solid 29" Red GRouper (biggest of the day) We missed a couple other big bruisers who got the best of us. We had an estimated 10 ft Greater Hammerhead chase a couple of our grouper to the surface. Tried deploying both a section of cuda as well as Bonita on the big rod, which he swam up to several times but decided against eating it. Weather was fantastic and had a sweet cruise back in with less than 2 ft seas. Cant wait to do it again! |
Archives
January 2026
|