Fish Charters

January 29, 2014 By Blake Matherly

Sanibel and Fort Myers Charter Fishing Report

Charter Fishing around Fort Myers and Sanibel Island Florida has been like a roller coaster ride lately. The up and down water temps have the fish more skiddish than a cat in a rocking chair store.

We had some great days during January and we had some of the worst days during the month also. Reports of a few nice Spotted Sea Trout and some decent Redfish catches have been noted along with decent catches of Mangrove Snapper and Sheepshead. We’ve had some nice days finding some Redfish tailing on the extra low tides.

No matter how you look at it, we’ve had some great days of weather and some great days of fishing in the month of January.

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

Capt Blake
<*(((><

November 24, 2013 By Blake Matherly

Sanibel and Fort Myers Fishing Guide Report

Fishing the waters surrounding Fort Myers, Sanibel and Captiva can produce fantastic results. Snook, Redfish, Speckled Sea Trout are just a few species that are living in these waters. You can target one, but are likely to catch 6, 8, 10 or more different species fishing the same type of bait, using the same techniques and even the same area.

My great friends from Omaha, came for a visit and enjoyed the bountiful waters. Carl and Marilyn Mammel enjoyed a couple of charter days out with Captain Blake on the Blue Egret and had a great fresh fish dinner that night. Carl caught a nice Tripletail but Marilyn’s got away. Notice this one did escape a threat early on in his life but Carl wasn’t about to let that happen again. Tripletail are a worthy opponent as they jump and pull drag trying to escape the dinner table.

Moving to the backcountry produces a number of different species such as the beautiful Redfish. Marilyn did get her revenge by outsmarting a number of Snook and this nice Redfish. This one was lucky as the Mammel’s do mostly practice “catch and release”.

We had a great couple of days on the water. The weather was beautiful but the company was special! See you guys soon.

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

Capt Blake <*(((><

October 8, 2013 By Blake Matherly

Sanibel and Fort Myers Florida Charter Fishing Report

Now is the time for all fishermen who like to fish the back country waters of Sanibel, Captiva and Fort Myers area to hire a charter fishing guide and enjoy some nice fishing.

Even though the record rainfall has turned the water into a Starbucks coffee look, the fish can be found in waters that they are comfortable with and they are hungry. The Trout bite has increased but the Redfish bite is what I’m talking about.

I’ve seen more schools of Redfish this year than many years past. Some schools seem to like the incoming and some like the outgoing and we’ve even had good bites on slack tides in some areas. We’re using lures, DOA Air Head, DOA shrimp, top-water plugs, and spoons. Live bait always seems to work but sometimes the lures seem the best thing to use. We’ve been fishing these fish for about a month now and hope to fish them into November.

Give me a call, lets set up a day to go and give it a try!

Get out on the water, take a kid fishing and always remember that “it’s great being us”!
Capt Blake <*(((><

September 1, 2013 By Blake Matherly

Snook Season Opens September 1, 2013

It doesn’t matter if you’re on a charter fishing boat with a local guide or if you’re out on your own, when you hook into a Snook you know it. Snook fishing around the Sanibel Islands is my favorite thing to do.

So, here comes September 1, 2013 and the Snook season opens back up. Some are for it, some say the population hasn’t had enough time to rebound from the freeze of 2010. Reports from that freeze say we lost as much as a third of our population of the Snook species. If you were out on the water after the freeze you’d guess that at least a third was lost and probably more. It was a huge loss.

So now it’s up to us to help manage the fish that’s loved so much and does so much for our waters on the West Coast of Florida. I know it tastes good but I think we love to kill a Snook because we’re men. That’s what we do. We like showing who’s boss.

We’ve had three years of catch and release Snook fishing. We’ve all survived our manhood and we have pictures to prove it. Guess what, the pictures remain much longer than the fullness in our bellies so why not just keep doing what we’ve been doing and enjoy the fight, take the trophy pictures and help that wonderful species really make a rebound.

Being a charter fishing captain I’ve listened to a lot of people talk about the population and it’s all across the board. I speak from 200 plus days of fishing on the water. It’s much harder to find and catch Snook today than it was before the freeze. I’m a common sense major and believe studies and surveys are used to justify a decision and not always what is actually happening. All I can base my studies on is being on the water and seeing what we’re catching. That’s the reason I’ve come to the conclusion that we need to understand how much more fun it is to catch a Snook than it is to eat one.

Enjoy some of my trophy pictures that my clients have enjoyed even without the harvesting of this great warrior.

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

Capt Blake
<*(((><

July 17, 2013 By Blake Matherly

Sanibel and Fort Myers Florida Fishing Charter Report

Fishing the Sanibel and Fort Myers area is a great way to relax on your vacation. The waters of Pine Island Sound are teaming with different species waiting for your fishing line to hit the waters.

Lately the fishing has been like the roller coaster rides we remember as a kid. The weather has been anything but predictable. Non typical rain patterns and lots of wind but fishing this coast is in my opinion the best place to get out even on bad weather day. We have lots of Island to find the Lee side of, and lots of creeks to tuck into to be able to turn a “would be cancellation” into a day to remember.

So be the case with my old friend and author of “Drawing Dead” Ben Shelfer. Ben called to have a day out with his girls, Angel and Karen. We’ve fished before, but Ben heard about some hard fighting Jack Crevalle that I’ve been on, and wanted a piece of the action with his daughters. So let the fight begin.

We chummed them up and presto, magic we were in them. Jacks are pound for pound, one of the toughest and most aggressive fished I’ve ever seen. They hit bait, flys, topwater lures and sometimes the kitchen sink (if you can get it out there)! We had multiple triple hookups, and some funny episodes to remember for a lifetime.

Thanks Ben, Karen and Angel for a day to remember! Hope to see you soon.

Get out on the water, take a kid fishing and always remember that “it’s great being us”!
Capt Blake <*(((><