We are seeing some seasonal changes with our wildlife around Fort Myers Beach! The pelicans are getting their breeding plumage, Osprey chicks are hatching, the manatees are back, Cristina spotted a sea turtle on a recent tour, and Capt Mike has reported lots of baitfish and small shark in the passes. The weather has been amazing too with Lots of warm sunshine. Here are a couple of pics from a recent marine Life Explorer’s Charter. We saw lots of dolphin on that charter, and they didn’t do any of their usual jumps and chase our boat because they were too interested in each other! We were lucky enough to spy on a whole resident pod mating, and some were feeding on a school of mullet. In the same area that activity was going on we also saw a manatee. What a site. The kids found all kinds of shells and had a great time finding all sorts of sea life, including a really cool lined sea star. This charter was great fun went by too fast.

We are definitely warming up here in

Dolphin Tour Fort Myers Beach

Southwest Florida, with highs supposed to reach 80 degrees by the weekend! Capt Mike reported a great day of fishing on the water today catching, snapper, pompano, black tip shark, and mackeral. Thats a great sign of lots of bait fish around. Capt Joe had a Loop charter yesterday with some return customers and said they saw lots of dolphin, and had a great afternoon on the water. Capt Cristina did a kayak tour in the afternoon and saw lots of night herons, anhingas, and one lone manatee! Also on her recent coastal shelling and dolphin cruise they saw lots of dolphins feeding, they weren’t as playful as usual but still swam right next to the boat, and found lots of shells at the shell island. The photo here was taken by Cristina during a rcent tour where 6 resident dolphin, including Notch, were swimming alongside the boat We look forward to our trips for the rest of the week and the beautiful weather to come here at Fort Myers Beach.

What a great year so far, lots of dolphins and some new calves to add to the population, lots of fun shelling, beautiful weather and gorgous sunsets. In the dolphin picture is a mom with her new calf. See the faint vertical stripes on the calf? Those are the markings from where the baby’s skin was creased while inside the mother. 

Also here is a picture and message sent to us from a recent passenger with this cool horse conch that we found at our shell island during our dolphin and shelling cruise.“We truly had a blast! And will definitely be back to see you guys if ever in the area again.  And got some amazing pictures.  You guys were awesome!!!  I attached a couple of pictures of the super cool shell…”

Some recent messages from passengers:

“We had an awesome time! You were the best tour guide! Unfortunately the video I thought I took with the dolphins didn’t work, but I still enjoyed it. Please find the pic of my dad and the sea star attached. We will definitely come back next time we visit. We would love to have our kids experience it! Thanks again. John & Mandy”

“Thank you so much Cristina ! I love the picture !
We now have all our nice shells in the bathroom giving it a tropical flavour (to beat the dreadful weather outside). 
We enjoyed the cruise tremendously,  
Keep the good work, educating people to ecology and teaching them to understand and respect nature and wildlife is essential. 
Cheers, Laurence”

Our kayaking tours are in the calm serene waters of Estero Bay. Our guides take you into areas of the bay you can’t get to by boat and it is such a beautiful preserve area. Recently we have spotted many different bird species including night herons, anhingas, kingfisher, and Osprey. We also often see dolphins and manatee on these tours too. On a recent tour, our guide was able to catch some sea life from her kayak to show our guests on the tour.

Capt Mike has been really busy with fishing charters and has had a lot of regulars returning for season and a lot of new clients as well. We received this photo from a family that went fishing with Capt Mike last week. Our marine biologist, Cristina, has also been reporting lots of dolphin and now that our water temperature is approaching the 70s, even some manatee sightings. The Ospreys are busy nesting, and she noticed some of our pelicans starting to show their breeding plumage.

Capt. Mike of Good Time Charters reports another great week of trout fishing in Estero Bay.  The sea trout were found along the edges of oyster bars and points of mangrove islands with good water movement,  using jig heads tipped with live shrimp.  The jig heads proved effective bounced along the bottom and/or floated below a popping cork.  Redfish and sheepshead were abundant in the same areas using little to no action.  Often times just a chunk of shrimp on a jig head was enough to hook the sheepshead, notorious for stealing bait.  Best advice for the sheepshead is patience and a tight line, especially on these windy winter days.  Remember keeping your rod tip low and your line submerged in windy conditions will greatly increase your sensitivity and better your chance of a solid hook up.

We recently had the pleasure of taking a young couple out for a private sunset cruise. Trenton booked the charter to propose marraige to his girlfriend! He told us what he wanted for the trip and we took care of those details so all he had to do was worry about what her response would be. The dolphins even helped out by leaping right by the boat. She said yes! It was the perfect evening with playful dolphins and an incredible sunset. We wish Trenton and Amy the best!

We are still having some cool brisk mornings on the water but that hasn’t slowed the dolphins down! They have been very frisky, busy feeding, and playing. As typical here in the winter, the shelling has been fantastic as well. Here are a couple of photos taken by our biologist, Cristina, from some recent dolphin tours. One is of a mother dolphin playing alongside her calf, and the other is of some shells that have been common finds on our morning dolphin/shelling cruises with some live sealife in a jar that Cristina collected during a recent tour to show our passengers. One morning we had about 8 dolphins swimming along both sides and behind our boat, some were jumping clear out of the water. We see dolphins everyday, and to have that many completely surrounding us and interacting was truly spectacular.

Capt. Mike Denegre of Good Time Charters reports an exceptional week in Estero Bay.  The spotted sea trout were on fire.  Catching these weak mouth delights require a little finesse.  Capt. mikes charters found the Jig heads tipped with live shrimp to work great especially when bounced along the bottom or floated with a popping cork.  On colder mornings try bouncing the bait along the bottom as the fish tend to be feeding lower in the warmer water.  When not targeting trout, sheepshead and lots of undersized reds were caught letting the bait lay on the bottom along oyster bars and mangrove islands with some depth and strong presense of shell fish.   For the sheepshead, the jig heads with a thin hook is recommended tipped with just a piece of shrimp in order to hook these notorious bait stealers.