Fish Charters

December 6, 2015 By Blake Matherly

Fly Fishing the Islands of Sanibel and Captiva

Fly Fishing has been some of the best of the year. Multiple hookups of Snook, Redfish, Trout and Tarpon. Yes, I said Tarpon.

Unbelievable huh? The weather has been great so the water temperature has been unseasonably warm. That makes the Tarpon happy so that makes my clients happy. I was even able to take the bow and cast a little lately and yes I was lucky in getting a pretty nice fish that liked jumping so good times had by all.

We’ve also had multiple hookups with Tripletail, Bonita, Mackerel, Jacks and a few Kings. Not sure how long this will stay as our northern friends are sending us some Northern fronts to calm down our bragging.

Get out on the water, take a kid fishing and always remember that “it’s great being us”!
Capt Blake
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February 15, 2015 By Blake Matherly

Sanibel and Fort Myers Florida Fishing Report

Sanibel and Fort Myers Florida Fishing report for last week in February is mixed with Snook, Redfish, Trout and Pompano. Even though we had a couple of cold fronts attack us from the north, we still managed to get some numbers in different species in the back country around the islands of Sanibel and Captiva in Pine Island Sound.

Clousers, EP Everglades Special, and Joe Mahler’s Strawboss were the best flies to target these fish while flyfishing. We use TFO Mangrove series 8 wt rods with Wulff Bermuda Shorts floating line to make the presentation right on target.

Dr. Collins from Winston Salem NC enjoyed some days on the flats catching Snapper, Snook and just missing some tailing Redfish on the grass flats. The weather was a bit windy but we still made the best out of the days we were out.

Lures included DOA Shrimp, and Berkley Gulp Jerk Shad worked best for getting the bait where the fish were holed up (mostly under the mangroves). Both the shrimp and the Shad are perfect for skipping the bait under the hanging limbs to set up the ambush.

For bait fishermen, live shrimp are the best bet for the cooler water temps. I like rigging the shrimp weedless so you can use on the open grass flats, around oyster bed or even under the mangroves.

Mike Gigliotti from New York and his father in law, Dan McConlogue from Fort Myers had a great day fishing mangroves, oyster beds and the grass flats using lures and live shrimp. Redfish, Snook, Snapper and Pompano were fooled by the masters.

Get out on the water, take a kid fishing and always remember that “it’s great being us”!
Capt Blake
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September 22, 2014 By Blake Matherly

Fort Myers and Sanibel Fishing Charter Report

Flats fishing report for the Sanibel and Fort Myers area continues to get better and better. Large schools of bait are everywhere. Off the beaches and also in the backcountry of Pine Island Sound. We all know what happens when bait comes in, yes it’s like the all you can eat seafood buffet at Red Lobster, except its CATCHING!

Bird / Fish Crashing Bait — Birds / Fish Crashing Bait

Easy fishing off the beaches. Just find the birds diving and start casting. I like using lures, DOA Baitbusters, DOA Shrimp or DOA Terror Eyz. Sebile plugs or spoons work also. We’ve been getting Mackerel, Ladyfish, Jacks and Bonita in these bait pods.

In the backcountry we fish the diving birds and get pretty much the same species as off the beach except for the Bonita. Still some Tarpon around and I love casting DOA Baitbusters to them.

Redfish fishing continues to be good and gets better every day. We’ve fished and have seen some very large schools but they’re not as consistent as I’d like them to be. We’ve had some days with double digit catches out of the schools only to get 0’d out the next day. Go figure!

Anyway, I love the summer fishing, get out early, have lunch, nice nap, and get back out for the late afternoon evening bite. It doesn’t get any better than that!

Get out on the water, take a kid fishing and always remember that “it’s great being us”!

Capt Blake
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August 2, 2014 By Blake Matherly

Sanibel Captiva Fort Myers Charter Guide Fishing Report

Flats Fishing around the islands of Sanibel and Pine Island Sound was pretty good this week. The weather was great as long as you got out early or fished the late afternoon. Tides were flowing nicely and the Snook were spawning in the passes so hopefully the stock will continue to improve.

Keep an eye out for diving birds. Off the beaches it would mean ladyfish, bonita, spanish mackerel or tarpon. We did have multiple hook ups this pass week while tarpon fishing so they’re here and hungry. We also had some nice snook catches along the beaches of the islands.

When in the back country, fishing the birds diving on bait, produces ladyfish, jacks, trout and tarpon. Even though we didn’t hook any tarpon in the back country this week we did see plenty.

Deep jigging the passes got some nice bites of mangrove snapper and small grouper which are fun to catch and we did get broken off with some nicer one.

All in all this week had some nice days of weather and also strong bites.

Get out on the water, take a kid fishing and always remember that “it’s great being us”!

Capt Blake Matherly,

www.flatsfishr.com

239-671-5646

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February 28, 2014 By Blake Matherly

Charter Fishing in Sanibel and Fort Myers Florida

The fishing report this week for fishing charters in Sanibel and fishing charters in Fort Myers is as follows. The weather pattern is pretty much what we expect for this time of year and the fishing has actually been pretty good.

Charters this week have been pretty good and as always it was great to see my friend Randy Love on the Egret again. Randy just got back from Mexico and brought his friend Michael along for the journey. Last time we tried getting Michael out a big front came in and blew us off the water. This time was our time to shine.

It started out a little slow but after a little patience and warming of the water temperature the bite started. At first we got into some pretty nice Jack’s. Pound for pound these guys are the toughest guys out there. What crowd pleasers they are. I give them a AAA+ rating on the attack of the bait or lure, and on the fight that comes after the attack.

We moved to see if we could get Michael his first Snook and Redfish (you always have to kiss your first Snook on my boat). It took a little longer and was a little tougher but we did finally tricked some nice fish into playing with us for a while.

What a great day out with old friends and great fisherman.

Get out on the water, take a kid fishing and always remember that “it’s great being us”!

Capt Blake
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