Cape Coral - Fort Myers - Sanibel
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Spent my black friday out on the gulf with a group of six who preferred to go look for dinner vs spend their time online or in stores shopping. Met up around 630 at pineland and off the dock around 7 after loading up. Forecast said 2 ft or less... not so much. It was more like 2-4, but again had a swell to it which made the ride pretty easy. The upgrade to the 33 World Cat has made the trips so much more enjoyable.
Set up shop out in 115 ft and the grouper were there ready to play. Dropped down big hunks of squid, sardines and squirrel fish. The bite was fairly steady with quite a few shorts coming up. Made a quick move. Dropped down lines again and it was a quad hook up with 4 legal Grouper for the box. Picked away thru the day at a few more. Lanes and Vermillion were around, but not much size to them. A couple stud size triggerfish joined in on the party. Moved around a bit more and picked away at legal fish for the box. We had some truly MONSTER hits that got the best of us. The great part was most of our fish were in the "dont need" to measure class, with the smallest we took at just over 22". Our largest was just a hair under 30". Got to see an amazing moonrise as the sun set. The moon was glowing orange, and was HUGE. Probably the nicest moon rise I've ever witnessed. Was a great day out on the water and seas subsided down to 1-2 footers for the ride back. Look forward to fishing with you guys again soon! Met up with the group of 3 at Pineland Marina for a 7AM departure. Seas were predicted to be bumpy and out of the north. While the wind stayed around 15 mph or so all day, there was more of a swell than heavy chop, and the 3-4 footers were handled with ease. Guys were looking to catch some grouper for their Thanksgiving dinner. SO with Grouper on our mind, Pushed out to 100 ft or so and first lines down. Boxed a couple Red Grouper and lanes. Moved out a bit deeper and deployed the anchor.
Was a solid and constant bite. Put out a couple flatlines, one of which was taken within minutes... Fish went airborne, but couldnt tell what it was. Worked fish to the boat and it turned out to be a juvenile Sailfish. Pretty rare and cool for the gulf coast. We worked on some more grouper for a bit and then switched up to lighter gear and spanish sardines. This brought the mangroves out and we boxed a good dozen or so with some fat ones mixed in. Was a fun day to be out on the water! And they had plenty of fish for their thanksgiving feast! Had a group of 5 for a full day trip out of Pineland. Game plan was to do a mix of fun fishing as well as finding some fish for the box. We pushed off around 7 AM with great conditions and everyone eager to get offshore. The weather was uber flat, with seas out of the east/southeast at 2 ft or less.
We made a stop out in 50ish foot of water over a good show to look for some live bait.. Boy did the spot produce. Sabiki rigs came up with 3 and 4 hand sized pinfish at a time with the occassional Threadfin, blue runner, tomtate and sand perch. We loaded the well up prety good and decided wreck fishing would make for a great start. Set the autpilot and off we went... in the neighborhood of 100 ft of water, some boiling water got my attention and we veered off to go take a look. There was a large school of blue runners in the 3-5 lb class harassing glass minnows. There were several large sharks harassing the blue runners and getting their fair share. We cast jig heads and spoons and were rewarded with some fun fights on the light 4000 spinners. a few were added to the livewell for bait,. A few bonita also made an appearance and were welcomed on ice for bait as well. We continued out and continued to see some schools of fish crashing the surface, but I decided it best to push on out. Once we arrived on the wreck, I had Tom drop the anchor. Once we settled, We dropped live pins to the bottom. They were engulfed almost immediately. This would remain consistent the entire time we were at anchor. I want to say we boated a dozen plus amberjacks with at least double or triplethat amount of breakoffs from fish that got back to the wreck, as well as a handful of cudas. We deployed a butterflyed blue runner on the Big Rod which subsequently was hit, only to come unglued. We dropped down again and after a short wait it doubled over... The guys worked the fish up... an estimated 300 lb Goliath Grouper. Everyone seemed pretty worn out by the Ajs and all agreed to go look for some fish for dinner. We worked a few miles away from the wreck and set up our first drift. Lots of very respectable and quality sized lane snappers joined the party. Second drift in Barry and Tomas both have their rods double over with something far larger, Resulting in our biggest red grouper of the day. We continued worked the area with lots of lanes and a handful of red grouper keepers making the ice box. Got ready to move to another spot when I saw some top water action and birds in the near distance. Didnt look like the normal bonita or mack schools crashing... Worked our way over there and I got a glimpse of a blackfin going airborne. We casted out a livebait and had a bucktail worked hard resulting in a near immediate hookup. Some blistering runs convinced me it was the target species. A few minutes later we get the visual on a nice west coast blackifn tuna. Sank the gaff and high fives all around. Continued to watch the birds, and move their direction. The swimbait gets hooked up next. Another great fight and the 2nd blackfin is boated. We continued chasing the school picking off another 2 respectable blackfin tuna for the box. I think we could have continue putting more in the box had the sun not set on us... Made the long run back in the dark with lots of smiles after an absolutely action packed incredible day. |
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January 2026
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