Thursday, 6/30/11 … black bear confirmed on Sanibel @ Ding Darling, but are there panthers?

Black Bear, Sanibel.

Lots of rain today.  We caught plenty of small fish. mostly sea trout.  We had several youngsters on the boat so we kept the action coming.

However, it turned out to be a very interesting day on the islands because of some land based wild life.  A Ding Darling Refuge remote camera caught an image of a young black bear on Sanibel.

They think the bear is most likely a young male, perhaps 1.5 years old with an estimated weight of about 40- 60 pounds.

I continue to believe that there may also be a panther or two in the refuge.  It will be interesting to see if the remote camera system captures a photo of a panther over time.  This would confirm a variety of reported sightings over the last several years.

If there is a panther, my guess is that it is a young male, that similar to the bear, has been pushed out of its range by another older male, likely its father, and probably came across the causeway islands at night.

Fair winds and following seas,

Captain Joey Burnsed ~ call 239-472-8658 or email captjoefred@gmail to book a Sanibel & Captiva fishing charter.

 

 

Wednesday, 6/29/11 … goliath grouper off Blind Pass, Captiva

We again caught plenty of trout, lady fish, and spanish mackerel on our charter today.

And we found those goliath grouper that we weren’t able to go after yesterday.

Caught three goliath grouper in the gulf off Blind Pass.  We had four more on the line but we couldn’t land them.

It was another good Captiva charter day.  We haven’t had a lot to complain about lately.  The fish are biting and we are catching a wide diversity of species.  Pretty much everything is available if we’re using the right bait and fishing the right tides.

The tarpon are moving out but there is still plenty of activity in Boca Grande.  My guess is that it will last another week or so.

Fair winds and following seas,

Captain Joey Burnsed ~ call 239-472-8658 or email captjoefred@gmail to book a Sanibel & Captiva fishing charter.

Tuesday, 6/28/11 … redfish and snook in the morning and fly casting for mackerel in the afternoon

Beautiful Captiva morning!
Double hookup for redfish!

Another good Captiva fishing charter day!

A spectacularly beautiful morning gave way to a quite different but still very beautiful, if admittedly quite dark and threatening, afternoon.  There was an ever present and foreboding storm chasing us (please see photo below).

We caught redfish and snook in the morning, fishing the mangroves along North Captiva.

Jack caught on a fly.

We also caught spanish mackerel near the grass flats in the bay off Redfish Pass.

On the afternoon trip we went fly fishing for spanish mackeral.  Our fly fisherman was able to hook and land ladyfish and one very, very small jack on flys.

Alas, he couldn’t hook a mackerel.  We decided to blame it on the wind and the distraction of the storm clouds and switched to spin casting rods.

The mackerel were biting.  We landed a couple of them on a spinning rod.  We also caught a couple of nice trout.

The storm eventually rolled in and we had to dodge the wind and the showers, but we had a lot of fun.

Storm coming toward us.

Oh I forgot.  We also caught a large sting ray on the morning trip that we were going to use for goliath grouper or shark bait on the afternoon trip.

We got distracted by the fly fishing and the storms in the afternoon, so Charlie and Hank just took a good look at him (we had removed his barb) and we let him go.

I guess we had a lot going on today!

Charlie, Hank & stingray.

Fair winds and following seas,

Captain Joey Burnsed ~ call 239-472-8658 or email captjoefred@gmail to book a Sanibel & Captiva fishing charter.

Monday, 6/27/11 … fishing Boca Grande again with Charlie & Hank

Headed to Boca Grande on the charter with Charlie again this morning.

Hooked about 100 pound tarpon, but lost him after about twenty minutes.  He kept running and running.

Charlie & small black nose shark.

We figured out what was going on about a minute after we lost him when we saw a very big, about 10 foot, bull shark eat the tarpon.  Unfortunately, it happened too quickly to get it on video.

We also caught a grouper and a small black nose shark today.

Fair winds and following seas,

Captain Joey Burnsed ~ call 239-472-8658 or email captjoefred@gmail to book a Sanibel & Captiva fishing charter.

 

Sunday, 6/26/11 … fishing with Charlie for tarpon & hammerheads at Boca Grande

Tarpon fishing, Boca Grande.

We had to work hard today to hook and land a tarpon.

Charlie, with his game face on!

We went to Boca Grande Pass this morning and, while the tarpon season is clearly on the wain and the tarpon are moving back out into the gulf, we saw plenty of fish.

The problem was the tarpon were constantly moving and so we were also constantly moving the boat, dropping the lines and then moving again a minute or two later.

Charlie, one of my good customers from Evanston, Illinois, was with me for this charter.

Charlie, tarpon on the line.

We hooked two fish and brought one to the boat, we then tried to be more ambitious and move him to the beach for photos   It took about twenty minutes and we got him to the beach, whereupon he broke off!

We also saw a large bull shark feeding on tarpon.

We’re headed back to Boca Grande tomorrow morning and hope to hook a large hammerhead shark.

I think I may have video of Charlie’s tarpon and, if I do, will post it later tonight.

Fair winds and following seas,

Captain Joey Burnsed ~ call 239-472-8658 or email captjoefred@gmail to book a Sanibel & Captiva fishing charter.

 

Tuesday, 6/21/11 … trout, ladyfish, mackerel & jacks off of North Captiva

Pretty straight forward but another good Captiva fishing charter day.

We caught trout, ladyfish, mackeral and jacks, along with three sharks, all  female.

Caught all the fish off North Captiva.

Fair winds and following seas,

Captain Joey Burnsed ~ call 239-472-8658 or email captjoefred@gmail to book a Sanibel & Captiva fishing charter.

 

Monday, 6/20/11 … forecast for the week ahead – lots of sharks off Captiva

Shark fishing, Captiva.

Sharks & more sharks.

Last week was a great week for shark fishing off Captiva.

The full moon put many sharks on the move to feeding in seven breeding grounds.

Captiva Pass was loaded with black nose, black tips and nurse sharks. I also spotted two Great Hammer heads off the beaches of Captiva and North Captiva.

When fishing for sharks in our area I use 50 lb test mono, a 135 lb nylon coated wire, and a 8/0 – 10/0 short shank hook.  I believe the nylon coated wire and small hook helps get more bites considering sharks have an electroreception system called ampullae of lorenzini.   Metal in water probably can be detected well by sharks. especially ones caught before.

I would fish for sharks on the late evening out going tide this week.

Monday 06-20-2011
Sunrise  6:36 AM EDT, Sunset  8:24 PM EDT
Moonset 11:09 AM EDT, Moonrise 11:59 PM EDT
High Tide:   6:19 AM EDT   1.4
Low Tide:  10:04 AM EDT   1.1
High Tide:   4:23 PM EDT   2.0
Low Tide:  11:34 PM EDT   0.2 

Tuesday 06-21-2011
Sunrise  6:36 AM EDT, Sunset  8:24 PM EDT
Moonset 12:02 PM EDT, Moonrise 12:31 AM EDT
High Tide:   6:42 AM EDT   1.5
Low Tide:  11:14 AM EDT   1.0
High Tide:   5:21 PM EDT   1.8

Wednesday 06-22-2011
Sunrise  6:36 AM EDT, Sunset  8:25 PM EDT
Moonrise 12:31 AM EDT, Moonset 12:53 PM EDT
Low Tide:  12:07 AM EDT   0.4
High Tide:   7:07 AM EDT   1.6
Low Tide:  12:29 PM EDT   0.9
High Tide:   6:26 PM EDT   1.6

Thursday 06-23-2011   Last Quarter Moon
Sunrise  6:36 AM EDT, Sunset  8:25 PM EDT
Moonrise  1:02 AM EDT, Moonset  1:44 PM EDT
Low Tide:  12:42 AM EDT   0.6
High Tide:   7:36 AM EDT   1.7
Low Tide:   1:48 PM EDT   0.8
High Tide:   7:43 PM EDT   1.4

Friday 06-24-2011
Sunrise  6:36 AM EDT, Sunset  8:25 PM EDT
Moonrise  1:33 AM EDT, Moonset  2:35 PM EDT
Low Tide:   1:17 AM EDT   0.8
High Tide:   8:10 AM EDT   1.8
Low Tide:   3:04 PM EDT   0.6
High Tide:   9:24 PM EDT   1.3

Saturday 06-25-2011
Sunrise  6:37 AM EDT, Sunset  8:25 PM EDT
Moonrise  2:06 AM EDT, Moonset  3:27 PM EDT
Low Tide:   1:53 AM EDT   1.0
High Tide:   8:48 AM EDT   1.9
Low Tide:   4:15 PM EDT   0.4
High Tide:  11:28 PM EDT   1.2

Fair winds and following seas,

Captain Joey Burnsed ~ call 239-472-8658 or email captjoefred@gmail to book a Sanibel & Captiva fishing charter.