05-24-13 Schools Out Fishing Trip
Posted by Captain Bill Curtis on Saturday, May 25, 2013 Under: Fort Myers
I’ve been out of town the last week and haven’t been on the water in what seems like too long. We changed that on Friday as it was just my boy and I celebrating the first day of summer vacation. We slept in and didn’t hit the boat ramp until after 9. First up we hit the bait spot on Fort Myers Beach and got enough nice pilchards in a lucky throw of the cast net to suffice for the day. I’ve heard the tarpon bite has been crazy good, so we hunted for them next. After no bites at the first stop, we found a fishy area with several boats fishing and set up for a drift. The first fish was a huge Spanish mackerel that started an awesome day for the 2 of us.
Next up the shark bite started with a vengeance. We probably hooked as many as 20 sharks over the next hour or 2 from 3’ Sharpnose sharks, to 4-5’ spinner and Blacktip sharks, and then had a 6’ or so Hammerhead shark swim up to the boat in the pretty clear water, very aggressively, scaring my boy just a little. Kolton did an amazing job fighting 1 after another, getting a couple of them all the way to the boat for full releases on his now biggest sharks caught.
I shot a little video you can see here KoltonFightingShark. We finally had enough as the bite tapered off anyhow, so we ventured to the back of Estero Bay to continue our fishing celebration. The bite started on the first cast with a hard fighting jack for Kolton. His great day continued with a couple more jacks and then a nice slot redfish pulled nicely out from under the now flooded mangrove trees.
With the afternoon sun blazing, making it feel like full bore summer already, we headed to the beach for a much needed swim and cool down. The last spot of the day yielded another awesome fish for my boy. We were dragging whitebaits under corks hoping for some trout when a huge boil erupted around Kolton’s cork and his drag started screaming. It took him a while just to stop the fish and he probably battled the huge jack for almost 10 minutes before he got it to the net.
After a couple of pictures we released his second largest jack ever and so ended our amazing day together on the water.
Next up the shark bite started with a vengeance. We probably hooked as many as 20 sharks over the next hour or 2 from 3’ Sharpnose sharks, to 4-5’ spinner and Blacktip sharks, and then had a 6’ or so Hammerhead shark swim up to the boat in the pretty clear water, very aggressively, scaring my boy just a little. Kolton did an amazing job fighting 1 after another, getting a couple of them all the way to the boat for full releases on his now biggest sharks caught.
I shot a little video you can see here KoltonFightingShark. We finally had enough as the bite tapered off anyhow, so we ventured to the back of Estero Bay to continue our fishing celebration. The bite started on the first cast with a hard fighting jack for Kolton. His great day continued with a couple more jacks and then a nice slot redfish pulled nicely out from under the now flooded mangrove trees.
With the afternoon sun blazing, making it feel like full bore summer already, we headed to the beach for a much needed swim and cool down. The last spot of the day yielded another awesome fish for my boy. We were dragging whitebaits under corks hoping for some trout when a huge boil erupted around Kolton’s cork and his drag started screaming. It took him a while just to stop the fish and he probably battled the huge jack for almost 10 minutes before he got it to the net.
After a couple of pictures we released his second largest jack ever and so ended our amazing day together on the water.
In : Fort Myers
Tags: "estero bay fishing"
