No pictures from the last 2 trips, not due to a lack of fish though. First trip was a Sunday charter the beginning of the month with a new Ft.Myers resident, his brother and father. Because of the tide and weather we met midmorning. I already had a nice bunch of whitebait caught right at the ramp at Punta Rassa, and some store bought shrimp for the day’s bait supply. With still fairly low water it was off to Shell Creek where we were able to get everyone a fish or 2 to get started. Lots of small snapper with a few decent keepers, ladyfish, jacks, and a couple of snooklets got the day going nicely. Next we hunted the lush grass flats at the mouth of the Caloosahatchee River for spotted sea trout. The bite got better and better as the tide pushed in and we zoned in on some very productive flats. We put several nice trout into the cooler up to about 19”, and released a bunch of shorts along with ladyfish and jacks. We also saw quite a few small sharks and a ton of sting rays in the fairly clear water. To finish the day we worked some mangrove shorelines hoping for redfish. One of the guys caught 1 small redfish at the first shore, and some good sized jacks made some for some drag screaming excitement at the last one to end another successful Fort Myers fishing charter.

The next trip was just before Thanksgiving with returning customer Gus. It was just the 2 of us and I convinced him to fish the 10,000 Islands for the first time, after fishing the last 3 times in Estero Bay. Once again cool temperatures and low water in the morning convinced us to meet later in the day for a 6 hour trip. We grabbed several dozen shrimp in Bonita and worked our way to the boat ramp off of SR 951 just before Marco Island. It was a tough bite in the 10K as we worked our way to the Gulf Of Mexico. Once on the outside we cast netted a few dozen smallish whitebaits and continued hunting the shallow water for our quarry. A few fish started coming in and we ended up getting 2 nice mid slot redfish, along with some small snook, trout, jacks and ladyfish to make it a worthwhile day.