A cold day is a bit of an understatement by South West Florida standards. The temperature was still in the low 50s when I put the boat in the water for the 10am 6 hour charter. At least the wind eased up as the day went on as predicted. The day’s guests were the nicest people from Louisiana in town for a shelling festival on Sanibel. I figured it would be a struggle to find fish with the water temperature in the low 60s but we ended up having a pretty good day. Not a bite at the first spot, so we found some deeper water and started to catch some fish.



The sheepshead don’t seem to mind the cold and we caught a bunch of them with a few keeper sized fish in the mix. We also caught plenty of jack crevalles, with some decent ones pulling pretty hard.



Also to come over the gunnels of the boat were some ladyfish and whiting that spent some time in the livewell before getting a reprieve and release. We also caught a glimpse of one small snook hooked off of an oyster bar that spit the hook right at the boat. One of the highlights of the day was when a group of 6-8 dolphins, including a baby, played and jumped with the boat until we left them. They were jumping so close that they were splashing us in the boat! We ended the day looking for some trout as the temperature was already dropping again. The grass flats were empty, but we found one small trout in a deeper channel to end the day.



With that it was back to the ramp after another great day in Estero Bay.