Here is our picture of the week,a 30" red grouper, with a little help from first mate Vinnie getting the big fish off the bottom, and me getting that perfect pose. Great day with calm seas and big fish.





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New customer Joel shared this picture of a very nice catch and release gag grouper he caught this week. On his trip we caught plenty of keeper red grouper along with snapper and porgys so the guys took home plenty of fish. We caught several nice gag grouper this week we had to release, along with decent numbers of red grouper we were able to keep. On a 6 hour trip this week we caught another nice gag, and all the healthy mangrove snapper we wanted. Only kept about 20 before we left them bitin...
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Yesterday’s trip went awesome with a new group of local guys. Fishing has been great with limits of red grouper on most 10 hour trips to start the new year.

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The last 2 days have been about as good as it gets with Fish n Tales Offshore Charters. Both days have been 10 hour dedicated grouper trips with returning customers. Just enough of a lite cool breeze kept the seas under 2’ and the boat just where I wanted it. Both days the fishing was great, with limits of red grouper including some pretty big ones in the mix. And we got our limits early enough so that we could target snapper, and my personal favorite, porgys. Trips made for great memories ...
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Limit of red grouper and a 30” gag, along with a few snapper. Great day with one of our favorite crews.





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Starting to get a few trips in as season has begun. The last trip was a 10 hour with a returning group of anglers. Fishing was easy with a limit of red grouper by 11 am, with some nice ones in the mix. Highlight of the day was a quick glimpse of a 12-13' Tiger Shark that briefly visited us.

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Had a great trip this past week for the opening of red snapper season. Highlights were big red snapper, the biggest red grouper I've ever seen. and my first ever African Pompano.







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We had a great 8 hour fishing charter this week with returning customers from the Vanderbilt Fishing Club. The highlight of the trip was a nice gag grouper that was asked home to dinner. We also caught lane, mangrove, and yellowtail snapper, along with a few porgys, and plenty of catch and release red grouper.


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Several nearshore trips over the last week have brought lots of action to our customers. Any charter 6 hours or less we consider a nearshore trip, where we rarely travel over 20 miles, and substantially less for 5 hour trips. This time of year we are able to catch some pretty nice red grouper in that range which has been the case over the last couple of weeks. Catches have included lane snapper up to 16”, mangrove snapper around the same size, porgys, and lots of red grouper, with a few leg...
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We had an awesome first on board the Fish n Tales this past week. On our farthest charter to date out into the gulf we hooked and landed our first sailfish.



We saw the fish on the surface while at anchor in slick calm conditions. One of our anglers quickly pinned a small live bait onto the hook of a fairly small spinning reel and pitched it out. After just a few minutes we had an estimated 50-60# sailfish leaping and tail walking across the surface for us, before getting it to the boat. The l...
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We’ve been doing long trips over the last week from 10 to 24 hours were the fishing continues to be hot. Red grouper fishing has been easy with fish up to 32”, and limits on every trip.



We just completed our last red snapper trip with nice fish up to about 28”. We had our best catch of gag grouper on our most recent long range trip, with several fish up to 36”.



While not getting big numbers of gags, we are getting at least a few on every trip. Although 1 big fish was caught on a dead ...
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We’ve been having some great fishing on the Fish n Tales out of Fish Tale Marina over the last few weeks. Gag grouper season just opened on July 1, and we are able to continue fishing for red snapper for another week or so making our long range trips off the hook.



We need to do minimum 24 hour trips to get out far enough to catch the red snapper here on our boat, but when we get out that far we are in the land of giant grouper as well.



On recent trips we have caught easy limits of red snapp...
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We’ve had lots of trips over the last few weeks with excellent results. The red grouper have been very cooperative biting both live and dead baits.



On our 10 hour trips we are bringing back limits of red grouper on just about every trip. Many fish are over 24” and we are getting plenty over 30”.



Results have been similar on 8 hour trips with big numbers of fish brought aboard but necessarily as big.



We made it out to a wreck on a 12 hour trip and caught a bunch of Greater Amberjack betw...
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The last couple of weeks have seen the best fishing of the year so far for us aboard the Fish n Tales.



The winter cold fronts have subsided and the weather has been great allowing us to run almost every day. The red grouper bite has been excellent on our 10 hour trips with us catching limits on just about every trip. A good percentage of the fish have been over 25” up to about 30”.



An 8 hour trip also saw us catch a limit in the last week. The water temperature is definitely warming which...
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When the weather allows the red grouper fishing continues to be good.



The fish are farther offshore than in their close to shore summertime haunts, but when we find them they are hungry eating dead baits as readily as live baits.



We still always carry some of each to make sure we cover all of our bases.



Some very nice gag grouper continue coming over the gunnels disappointing some clients that they still have to release them, as they are out of season. On some of the rougher days when the gro...
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The weather has made it a little tough on a few trips over the last week, but the fishing continues to be excellent. Our focus continues to be filling the fish box with red grouper on our 8-10 hour trips.



We are also able to get out far enough to where the Amberjack are on our 10 hour trips. The Amberjacks definitely prefer a nice live bait, so be sure to have a bunch in the livewell if you are going to target them.



We have been catching good numbers of red grouper up to 32” except for one ...
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It's been another great week fishing on board the Fish N Tales. The red grouper have definitely moved farther offshore, but we are catching limits to near limits of fish on our 8 and 10 hour trips.



Many of the grouper are over 24" up to about 30".



The porgies are still biting well when we use the lighter tackle and small pieces of squid. Both offshore and nearshore we are also finding nice mangrove snapper, and most recently we had a great catch of lane snapper. It's been tougher to find a...
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I had a fun trip last week with a diehard group of returning fisherman for their third consecutive year fishing inshore with me. The only day they could fish just happened to be the coldest day of the year for us so far, with temperatures in the upper 40s, and the wind blowing at 20 for our 7am start.  And still one of the guys showed up in shorts, those guys from up north can be nuts at times. With numb hands I baited their hooks with live shrimp at the first stop where we caught a few whiti...
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The weather has been great to bring in the New Year, allowing us to fish just about every day over the last couple of weeks. And the offshore fishing has been excellent.



The amberjack have moved into their wintertime habitat, and they are large and hungry to start the season.



We have caught as many as 7-8 on a recent trip, and have caught them every time we have fished for them on 8-10 hour offshore trips. The grouper have also been more than cooperative on our longer trips with some very nic...
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The offshore bite continues to be great. We are catching lots of porgies, some of the best eating fish in the gulf, mangrove snapper, and some surprisingly large yellowtail snapper. Lots of red grouper have been giving our anglers great battles on spinning gear, even though they still have to be released for another few days. The good news is that red grouper will once again be able to be harvested starting January first 2015 in federal waters where we mainly fish. The limits will still be a ...
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We had an excellent day last week with a father and son team, fishing off of the Pro-Staff boat out of Fish Tale Marina on Ft. Myers Beach. The inshore trip started mid-morning under overcast skies with a light breeze making it very comfortable fishing conditions. The tide was at its peak high as we started to fish with live shrimp under popping corks in one of my favorite areas on the north end of Estero Bay. There was no bite to start, but as soon as the water started to move it was fish on...
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The Crowds from a great season are gone, but I’m still getting to fish a few times a week. Some inshore and some offshore fishing trips have been keeping me busy. Finding live bait for the inshore trips has been difficult to say the least. So for the most part we’ve been fishing with live shrimp and still having good success. The snook have moved from their winter time back country haunts and have flooded the bays, passes, and beaches, and they are hungry.



We’re landing several on most ...
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Time to catch up the reports again, after another great couple of trips. We had one of my best trips so far on the offshore boat.



It was a ten hour trip and we got to head out where the big ones live, before the sun was even up.





We got the group a limit of red grouper with several of them over 30” and none under 24”.



We are still having to get out to deeper water to catch legal size fish over 20”, but when we get out there, they are chewing.





The gag grouper are still in close and we have ...
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One of my favorite times of year is upon us. The waters are slowly getting less crowded and the fishing is getting off the hook, but not the fish. I have fished several charters in the near shore waters from Fort Myers Beach to Sanibel in search of Tarpon. While I have heard some scattered reports of a few people hooking fish, we have only seen a few fish free jump, and have not seen one pod.



The good news is that the sharks are thick as can be waiting on the silver kings. We have hooked as m...
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Once again with fishing almost every day, I’m not having much time for reports.



I’ve had several inshore charters where the highlights have been some very nice flounder, a few black drum, some big Jack Crevalles, and lots of smallish snook.



One of the more entertaining trips had us catching a few small stingrays before we hooked a monster one that had to be almost 6 feet across that we fought on 12# spinning gear for about 20 minutes before they handed the rod off to me to see if I could ...
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The weather has been absolutely beautiful the last few weeks here is Southwest Florida and the fishing has been great. I have fished inshore in Estero Bay and offshore out of Ft. Myers beach. The inshore catches have been dominated by some nice sheepshead, including one of the biggest I’ve seen in the last couple of years. With the mild weather we’ve been having the scaled sardines have been available, except within a day or so of a cold front, which usually makes a big difference on how ...
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I’ve had several great trips in the Fort Myers area over the last couple of weeks.



There have been new friends on board, as well as returning customers, and some new clients, all getting to experience great trips in Estero Bay.



The bait is still available on the beaches, but we’ve been using some live shrimp as well to catch the sheepshead and black drum that are taking up their seasonal residences in the passes.



The snook bite continues to be excellent and there are some very large jack c...
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Still catching up on reports and received a few pictures from another great group of guys that I thought I would share, thanks Brian.



Although the water temperature continues to dip from the summer highs, the whitebait, AKA snook and redfish cookies, are still hanging out off the beaches in shallow water, making them easily nettable to start the days charters.



The snook bite continues to be great except for 1 trip, which worked out as we found some very nice redfish to make up for it on that ...
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I can’t believe how long it’s been since I posted any reports!



The lack of reports doesn’t mean no fishing or catching though.



I had a few charters over the last month or so with 4 customers on board catching a bunch of fish making it difficult to get any pictures. My preferred bait of scaled sardines has been readily available making it that much easier to catch a ton of fish.



The snook bite has been fantastic. Pretty much every charter has seen double digit catches of snook, with lots ...
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Saturday’s charter was scheduled at the last minute when I got a call from a dad visiting from Jacksonville with his family that included 3 boys. I was able to accommodate them and we met at the Carl Johnson Boat Ramp at Lover’s Key just before 8 am for our 4 hour fishing excursion on Estero Bay. We started off running to a nearby beach where a couple throws of the 8’ castnet loaded the livewell with nice bait. On our way to the first fishing spot we came across one of my favorite pairs...
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In spite of the dark water in the area from all of the fresh water releases the fishing continues to be excellent.



I have another couple of pictures with a bad setting, but the last photos are fixed.



We found quite a few redfish this week, and the snook have been feeding actively all day long.






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I had another good 4 hour charter on Estero Bay yesterday. The couple and first time customers are here visiting Fort Myers from the Buffalo area. We started the afternoon trip looking for some bait to capture with the castnet without any luck. No matter, the shrimp I had purchased that morning worked just fine. We spent the afternoon fishing in the back sections of the bay around the mangrove islands and oyster bars.



The best fish of the day was a nice slot redfish over 22”, and we also ca...
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Sunday’s fishing charter reserved just the day before went great, considering how stirred up the water was from the big front and storm on Friday. Several areas that held good fish and bait prior to the storm were vacant still on Sunday. Nonetheless we caught a bunch of nice sheepshead with a half dozen or so keepers and a nice big fat redfish to make my first time clients extremely pleased about their charter fishing trip on Estero Bay.


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The weather continues to warm as does the water temperature bringing in the hordes of baitfish and all the predators that follow them. This week we’ve seen the sheepshead bite continue to be steady yielding some filets for most of my customers who want them. Bait has been spotty but I’ve been netting some for most every charter including huge threadfin herring for one afternoon trip. I have also taken a few of our trips out in to the Gulf of Mexico looking for the start of the tarpon migr...
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We had found some nice redfish the last few trips in Estero Bay and the tide and wind were perfect for the day’s charter to hunt them again. A few jack crevalles and ladyfish got things started for the group of 3. Then along came the big bite of the day. Luckily the fish ate the large shrimp away from the mangrove shoreline and never really tried to head that way.



The lady on board did an amazing job of battling the huge redfish to the boat where we took a couple of quick pictures and releas...
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The day was warming up some, but there was still a cool breeze blowing as my first time Canadian clients boarded the boat right on time for our 4 hour afternoon Fort Myers fishing charter. The tide was now flooding the Back Bay giving us access to the area we found some nice fish on Monday. So that’s where we went to start our fishing.  On the way we found a group of dolphins that played and jumped in the wake of the boat starting the trip off nicely. The first fish came pretty quick as a s...
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The cool morning 4 hour charter began with 2 sons, dad, and grandpa boarding the boat right on time at the boat ramp on Estero Bay. The livewell was chock full of live shrimp to use for bait throughout the day. The tide was extremely low and still headed out as we began fishing some deeper water. With not much more than a few nibbles at the first spots in New Pass, we headed south for a change down to Hickory Creek. The first fish came quickly, a hard fighting jack for one of the young men.



Fr...
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The Friday afternoon 4 hour charter was reserved way in advance, by a mom looking to create a very special day for her 7 year old son, on their Florida vacation. The weather was warming up nicely when I picked them up at the Carl Johnson Boat Ramp at Lover’s Key just before noon for our adventure on Estero Bay. First up was a quick look for whitebait to gather with the cast net. So we left the ramp and headed towards Big Carlos Pass, where we quickly came upon a group of dolphins who gave u...
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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,...
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I wasn’t sure how Thursday’s scheduled afternoon charter was going to go, mainly considering that my first time clients were meeting me at the ramp directly upon landing from the airport. To both of our relief, the travel went smoothly and on time, and we were idling away from the ramp by 2 pm for the 4 hour charter with Bob and his 13 year old son. It was nice to start a trip in the afternoon this time of year with a higher tide, and we immediately headed back to some mangrove shorelines...
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Nice getting back on the water again after a bit of a lull. This Wednesday morning charter was with some avid fresh water fishermen who don’t get to fish the salt very much. They picked right up on the techniques we were using after we left the dock at Lover’s Key right on time.



The bite started with plenty of sheepshead, snapper, and small jack crevalles eating our live shrimp bounced along the bottom of some of the deeper waters in the passes. Once the tide was high enough, we ventured ...
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After not being on the water much at all the last few weeks, Friday was the day to get back out and see what is going on. The day’s 4 hour charter was with longtime customer Gus, and his young son Jack. We started at 9am from the Carl Johnson Boat Ramp at Lover’s Key, just south of Fort Myers beach. There has been a terrible outbreak of red tide in the area, and that was a concern for the day. My last trip we found areas bad with red tide, but we were able to find spots with clean water a...
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The Saturday charter with first time customers Rusty and JD started well. Everybody was right on time for our 10am departure from Punta Rassa, for our 6 hour trip. Then, within a few minutes I was able to net plenty of bait at the causeway without much searching in just 3 throws of the net. There didn’t seem to be any evidence of red tide like the week before as we started drifting some grass flats on the slowly incoming tide. Before long we were able to zero in on some trout hitting the sc...

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Tuesday’s trip was a 6 hour charter with first timer Paul. He received the guided trip as a Christmas present from his wife, nice! We headed out for the 6 hour charter right on time at 8am from the Carl Johnson boat ramp at Lover’s Key. He said he hadn’t fished salt water much but he had no trouble working with the 12# spin tackle we started with, catching small sheepshead, snapper, ladyfish, and a decent slot trout. With the tide incoming but still fairly low we fished several areas ar...
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The day started with first time customers Eric, his wife, and father in law, all staying on Fort Myers Beach and visiting from colder locales up north. We all met for the full day trip at the Carl Johnson Boat Ramp at Lovers Key. They were in great spirits, and so was I as we left the boat ramp for what was forecasted to be the nicest and warmest day in over a week or so.



The tide was super low, but beginning to flood back in through Big Carlos Pass where we began our fishing.



We caught sever...
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The afternoon charter for the day was with first timer Juergen and a couple of family members, all from Germany.  It hadn’t warmed up very much when I picked them up at the Carl Johnson Boat Ramp at Lover’s Key, but the tide continued to come in nicely. The bite was tough, but we fished a couple of the same spots as the day before, and there were a few fish still biting in the cold weather. The surprise and best fish of the day were a couple of nice snook , 1 fought and lost, but another ...
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I was referred the mornings charter from a good friend, and met Doug and his party at the boat ramp at 951 right on time. The morning was still chilly for South West Florida standards in the low 50s and the tide was low. So we started fishing in a canal at a bridge where we had some water depth and good current starting to flow with the incoming tide. We caught a few small snapper and Doug caught his dinner, a nice fat sheepshead.



We continued working our way around catching a few small snapp...
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I received a call Tuesday morning from Michael, staying on Ft. Myers beach and in search of an inshore fishing charter. They were fairly flexible and we decided on fishing the flooding tide on Wednesday afternoon for a 4 hour trip. I was able to get the boat on the water a little early, after picking up several dozen huge live shrimp at the ramp, to search for other live bait to net. Didn’t see any bait around, but found a fairly large school of snook in one area. I had to see if they were ...
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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 ...
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Had a great charter on Tuesday with first time customer Jeff, in town for vacation. It was just the 2 of us as we left the dock at Lover’s Key just about the time the sun was peaking over the horizon. We started the day heading out of New Pass looking for the snook that have been pounding the bait along one of the shorelines. The tide was still swiftly running out, and there wasn’t any visible activity in the muddy looking dark water. So we were off to the beaches from there to hunt for b...
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Monday’s charter was with a couple of guys fishing with me for the first time, from the New England area, staying on Fort Myers Beach. The 3 of us met right on time, just before 7 am at the boat ramp at Lover’s Key where I picked up a few dozen decent shrimp, a couple of bags of ice, and we were off. The first stop was to throw the cast net a few times where we added some pinfish, croakers, mojarro and a couple of whitebaits to the livewell. We put those baits to work right away, and the ...
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An unexpected chop, even on the inland waters greeted me as I throttled up the motor and the boat began to plane for a weekday charter with first time clients on a Wednesday morning. They wanted to fish for tarpon, and the cloudy and generally stirred up water was going to make it difficult for what I wanted to do.  I picked up the eager group of 3 before sunrise and we set up some drifts not far from the ramp on the swift flowing outgoing tide. Bait was a combination of perfect large sized b...
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I’m a little delayed getting this fishing report up, but I had to share what a great day we had. I met the first time clients, a father and son team, at Lover’s Key right at 7am for a half day trip.



I grabbed a few dozen decent shrimp from the baithouse and we left the dock quickly, looking to add some more likely baits to the livewell. On the still very low tide we managed to add a nice mixture of small pinfish, mojarro, pigfish, and whitebaits to our menagerie of live and artificial offe...
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I got a call early in the week from longtime friends and customers, the Ganchou family, asking about an opening for a fishing trip. I was able to fit them in for an early trip out of Marco Island on Thursday. We met at the ramp at 7, and after a bit of a scramble, purchased some tiny live shrimp and hit the water. The first stop was very close to the ramp, and we started catching fish immediately.



Carol started it off with a fun little snooklet.



Everybody caught a fish or 2 before we moved on t...
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Fishing with me last Monday was Tim and Sue from Valparaiso, IN. Bait for the day was live shrimp, and large threadfin herrings caught that morning, before the trip, at the Big Carlos Causeway.

We had a great day with lots of small fish caught, and a nice break at The Fish House restaurant for lunch.

The giant threadfins we were using for bait got a good bit of attention, but the unknown fish chasing them just couldn’t quite seem to get them down. There was one nice size snook, that we sa...

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I had returning customers and friends on the boat Friday. We met on the already warm morning about 8am at the boat ramp at Lover’s Key, which is just south of Fort Myers Beach. The boat was already loaded with bait for the full day trip, plenty of frozen threadfins and shrimp from previous trips, very decent sized live shrimp for this time of year, and both livewells brimming with fresh caught small to medium sized threadfin herrings. Once everyone and everything was loaded and secured ...

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We had another great day on the water Tuesday out of Punta Rassa, in Fort Myers. For the first time on my boat were Dale and Linda from Wisconsin. The trip was a bit of a treat for Linda to celebrate her approaching birthday. We began the day right on time, headed towards the Sanibel lighthouse and quickly ran across a few dolphins on the move. As soon as we got under the causeway, a just big enough chop on the water to make the ride uncomfortable, slapped the bow of the boat. With my plan fo...

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I received a call from a returning customer on Sunday, and luckily enough for both of us, we were able to schedule an early half day trip the next morning. I met Gus and his son at the ramp at Lover’s Key just as the sun was breaking the horizon. Glass calm conditions greeted us as we got up on plane and headed out of Big Carlos Pass to look for bait. A pod of dolphins sidetracked us for a few minutes with some good antics before we made the rest of the run to the beach. A small swell was c...

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I had a great family charter on Monday. We departed the ramp at Punta Rassa, at the base of the Sanibel bridge, in Ft.Myers with several dozen shrimp, Grandma, Grandpa, Dad, brother, and sister, all from typically cold locals this time of year up north.
 
A beautiful calm day greeted us as we headed towards the tip of Sanibel. As hoped, we quickly found a pod of playful dolphins that put on a nice show for us, jumping and playing in the wake of the boat, before we moved on. We fished shrimp on ...

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Finally getting to sit down and put together the latest fishing report after a crazy week. It was the third day in a row of inshore fishing for my son and I, during his spring break. Joining us on the Wednesday morning adventure were another cousin/nephew and a buddy of mine and his young son. As we worked our way out of Weeks Fish Camp loaded with shrimp, and an exuberant crew, a gorgeous heron saw us off. 

We motored to some nearby grass flats and got everybody rigged for some trout fishing....
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