Fishing Charter Reports

May 3, 2014 By Blake Matherly

The New Egret Boat Has Landed

My new 2014 167 Egret flats boat has been delivered and already proven itself as the perfect boat for charter fishing the backcountry around the islands of Sanibel and Captiva.

Egret finished the boat in March and I was knocking at the warehouse door ready to pick it up. It’s approx 2 feet shorter than my 189 but only 2 inches narrower in the beam. It drafts 3 inches shallower and is about 300 pounds lighter. All these ingredients put together is a great recipe for all the different types of fishing I specialize in, especially doing more lure and fly fishing.

The Egret boat is known for being the “Rolls Royce” of flats boats. It’s smooth and dry ride is second to no other flats boat. The stability and quality is tops in it’s class. I worked with Egret owner, Frank Afshari, to custom build the perfect boat for fishing the backcountry waters around Sanibel. The boat is built using Carbon/Kevlar which is lighter and stronger than other materials. Some new features include, Minn Kotas I Pilot trolling motor, Power Pole Blade series shallow water anchor, Raymarine Dragonfly GPS/Sonar with new CHIRP down vision technology, Custom built Boatmaster trailer, and a Yamaha 115 HP 4 stroke power plant. Egret has numerous other quality features that makes this boat the best of the best.

The next test is yours, so come on down and lets go fishing!

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 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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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
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August 18, 2013 By Blake Matherly

Fishing Guides in Sanibel and Fort Myers Weekly Report

Fishing in Sanibel and Fort Myers with a charter guide for Snook, Redfish and Tarpon has been pretty good lately but other species are also a recipe for a great day on the water.

So is the case lately when Mick (Dad) and Katie (Daughter) decided to take a day off the beach and spend it on the water.

The day started out by being welcomed by some Dolphin leading us to the fishing grounds. After some hit and misses we ended up at a spot where we can usually catch a few but this day the bite was on.

Katie was reeling them in as fast as I could unhook them and Dad took the back seat watching her and forgetting that this is a competitive girl and she’s keeping record of the score. There were Mangrove Snapper, Jack Crevalle, Ladyfish, Speckled Sea Trout and her favorite the Topsail Catfish (it was the biggest and pulled the best). We ended up spending the whole charter fishing this one spot and had a great time.

Everyone that knows me and reads my blog understands my favorite day of fishing is when a parent takes their kid out for a day of fishing. It brings back memories of my dad taking time out to get me and my sister hooked on fishing.

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

Capt Blake
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Below is a part of an email sent by Katie after our great day on the water. Tight lines Katie and hope to see you next year!

“My dad and I had a lot of fun fishing with you last week!
I can’t believe all of the different kinds of fish we caught: mangrove snapper, jack crevalle, topsail catfish, ladyfish, & sea trout.
My favorite ones were the jacks and the catfish!
We look forward to fishing with you again in the future”.