Good Time Charters

Fort Myers beach sunset

Fort Myers Beach Dolphins

Its’ raining today! Well, at least for the morning, or maybe for the next hour, or for the next twenty minutes. If you’ve lived here in South Florida for any significant amount of time then you know the routine. Growing up here in Florida I think has made me a bit insensitive to the strong possibility that most people in the rest of the states do not deal with so much erratic unpredictable weather, at least on a daily basis, or some days even an hourly basis. For instance, in Connecticut if they say it will rain, it does. Here, however, if they say it will rain, it might. It might rain for 5 minutes somewhere across the street, it might rain all day nowhere else except over your house, it might be sunny and beautiful, or it might just in fact rain everywhere. Our weather forecasts are about as reliable as my husband’s old dodge truck, some days she cranked right up, many days she didn’t, on her feisty days she cranked up but then the rest of the day I would have to park on some sort of down-cline with an unobstructed runway so I could get a running start to get her to turn over. You never really knew what to expect but to always be prepared, have a backup plan, and savor what the day brings. Ah how I miss that old truck…not really.

So back to this rain, we have canceled our morning fishing charter, and dolphin cruise because of it. Bummer. Not only do we not get to “work” and make any money today, but we are all somewhat addicted to our work, we miss it when we don’t get to take our tours out, to see the smiles, hear the ooohs n ahhhs, the thank yous, and sometimes even get hugs from our passengers because they not only enjoyed their trip but they enjoyed us as well. This line of work is definitely for that kind of reward, being paid in the process is just a bonus. Some days are tougher than others and the wildlife doesn’t always cooperate. All of us here genuinely care if our passengers are having a good time, and experiencing more than what they were expecting. Believe us, not finding dolphin on a tour is our biggest fear, and in the rare times it does happen, we feel beat up and defeated knowing when we get back to the dock our passengers are leaving us disappointed. But like I said that doesn’t happen often, maybe once a month, maybe.

Well, we must be doing something right because we sure do have a lot of regulars and returns. Our regulars the Filburn’s are in town and they have gone on several fishing charters and most recently chartered our boat for a private sunset cruise. Let me tell you what mamma Filburn sure can fish! We have been watching their children, and grandchildren grow up over the past few years. We love that. Their sunset cruise was spectacular, with dolphins chasing our boat out the pass into the Gulf water,2 and 3 dolphins jumping at a time. When the dolphins tired of us and swam off, we set up a nice drift to watch the sunset out over the Gulf. There were some low lying clouds too that made it extra colorful, the attached picture doesn’t do it any justice. On the way back to dock, flocks of egrets, ibis, and heron were flying in to rest for the night and the sky was lit up with hues of pinks, orange, and purple. A beautiful sunset cruise for a beautiful family. Well, I’m going to go take advantage of a rainy morning and work on my new photo book collection! Like my good friend Andy says- “Hasta la Rasta” -Cristina and the Good Time family

Horse conch and lightening whelk

Fort Myers beach dolphin cruise

Wow, we have been seeing so much wildlife where do I begin! Our morning cruises have truly been spectacular, our afternoon runs have been awesome with no shortage of dolphin sightings, and the sunset cruises have just been amazing to catch sight of dolphins, watch the sunset out over the gulf, and then watch the flocks of birds flying in to roost for the night. On a recent Coastal sealife shelling and dolphin cruise, we not only had playful dolphins jumping out of the water and playing near the boat but we also found another “Mongo” whelk, as well as a huge horse conch, and a sea hare. We put them back in the water after checking them out and talking about them with our passengers. Then as if the morning was as good as it could get, we saw a mother manatee with her calf moving into the grass flats to feed! What a treat as they have been rare to see lately with the cool water temps.

On a recent afternoon dolphin cruise, Capt Mike rescued a brown pelican that was entangled in fishing line, hooked in the leg, and unable to fly. Capt Mike was able to free the bird successfully and it flew away, but noticed that there was tons more fishing line still waiting to entangle more birds. He had me meet him at the dock after his tour, to go out and help cut all this line from the island. This isn’t just any island but a rookery island where our pelicans and wading birds are known to ‘rest and nest’. As I waded slowly over to the island, so I wouldn’t stress out and spook any birds, I was amazed at how much of this fishing line was there, woven over the branches,  all the way to the interior of the island and back out, all the way to the top branches, and we measured about 75 ft of line that I took out of there. Wow, good eye Capt Mike for spotting that pelican. Speaking of Capt Mike, he has been reporting the redfish bite is back! We had a couple cold fronts slow the fishing down a couple weeks ago, but now with the water temps climbing back into the mid 60′s the redfish are hungry and biting! Capt Mike’s Fort Myers beach fishing charters have been catching sea trout, sheepshead, and redfish.  WooHoo! Who likes Blackened Redfish Tacos?? ME ME!

If you have been around Fort Myers Beach lately, you have been enjoying our wonderful temperatures and gorgeous sunsets. Everyday seems magical here for us, and we thank all of you that come out with us to learn about and experience our paradise. Well, off for more Fort Myers Beach boating adventures- Cristina and the rest of the Good Time Family.

Wow what a busy end of the year we had around the holidays! We have been spotting many dolphins, and lots of different birds. The sealife at the beach has been superb and we have been finding many sea stars, sea urchins, and whelks. The live critters are released but we have been finding many empty conchs and pretty shells to take home as well. The manatees have been seeking warmer water, and the dolphins are playful as ever. On a recent coastal sealife, dolphin, and shelling cruise, our guide Cristina found a huge live lightening whelk that was about 14″ long. Our other guide Marlowe, that guides our Everglades Tours, said “that is a Mongo whelk!” So we named it The Mongo and released him back into the Gulf. The weather at Fort Myers Beach has been very cooperative for this time of year with average temps in the mid 70′s by day.

It has been a great week, super busy, and we have been seeing lots of wildlife including dolphins and manatees. The manatees have been tough to find and get to their “hang outs”, either because of really low tides, or cool water temps. We are still spotting sea turtles around and birds galore! Up until this cold front that rolled in yesterday, the fishing has been jammed packed with lots of action. Now with the front, fishing was tough the past couple days but Capt Mike still had a decent bite today, working the flats and oyster bars with live shrimp. We expect the fishing to improve tomorrow and on into next week as our temperatures climb back up. The red fish have been hungry and the big sheepies have been biting too.  Here are a couple pics from some recent charters:

December has brought us some wonderful cooler temperatures with lows in the 50s at night and highs in the mid 70s with plenty of sunshine. The manatees have been moving into warmer waters so we are not seeing them as much as we do in the summer months but we are still spotting them feeding around the grass flats. The birds and the dolphins however are abundant as always. We are even still spotting sea turtles in the bay although they too are moving back out for warmer water. Here are a couple photos from some recent tours. You can see more photos on our facebook page.

The weather here at Fort Myers beach is just perfect this week so far, highs in the mid 80′s and lows in the upper 60′s with the gulf breeze and plenty of sunshine. Much better than the rains and dark clouds from the past weekend. Regardless of the weather, the wildlife has been abundant as usual with lots of dolphins around and many of our migratory birds visiting for the fall and winter months.  We are also still seeing some manatees around feeding on the grass flats. The woodstorks are back too and we have been spotting them around Fort Myers Beach in the bay feeding alongside with the roseate spoonbills, egrets, and herons. We are so lucky to have so much wildlife right in our backyard- from the the smallest little snail to large manatees topping over 1500 lbs.

There is so great wildlife diversity in our bay here around Fort Myers Beach, florida. On recent tours and cruises we have been seeing bottlenosed dolphin, manatees, and many different species of birds, including roseate spoonbills, bald eagles, and anhingas. Here are some of my photos from recent tours. -Cristina

Captains Dwight, Mike and Cristina have been working towards their Coastal Florida Master Naturalist certification. They have been having a great time and even hosted a birding and wildlife cruise/field trip for the class. They did individual presentations on various coastal topics and then made an educational comedy movie as part of their final project. Please watch it here: Good Time Charters movie.

Dolphins chasing our boat during our cruise yesterday. How fun! Here’s a video of it: dolphin video

Here’s a short video of a resident dolphin we have named Notch and her calf chasing our boat during a tour . To view click on this link: dolphin Tour Fort Myers Beach Good Time Charter