Charter Fishing Boats

    I enjoy and take part in all kinds of fishing in South Florida therefore I offer all kinds of fishing trips. I truly enjoy my job and in order to do all the types of fishing in the Fort Myers area you need a different boat each condition. Any guide that has one boat is limited to doing one kind of fishing best since no boat is good at everything.

The flagship of the fleet is a 2008 24ft Lake and Bay boat. She is powered by a 225 horse power Evinrude E-tec outboard. Her rigging included a Powerpole shallow water anchor, Bob's hydraulic jack plate, 36v trolling motor and Raymarine A-65 Sonor and mapping GPS unit. I use this boat for most of my fishing from April though September. During this time most of my fishing is geared toward tarpon fishing in Charlotte Harbor, Boca Grande and Pine Island Sound. Most of the spring is windy and the conditions can get quite rough since tarpon are generally found depths ranging from 10 to 50 feet deep. The Lake and Bay is fast topping out at 55 mph and cruises at 40+ mph. This is important because we run a lot of trips and cover a lot of water looking for the schools of tarpon. You'll want a fast boat that takes the chop so your not wasting valuable fishing time. The 36 volt trolling motor is used to intercept schools of fast moving tarpon when fishing for them along the beaches from Ft Myers to Boca Grande. The high powered sonar unit is used to mark schools of tarpon and kingfish when the fishing the deep waters of Boca Grande or running near shore or offshore fishing charters.

     With the deep water fishing covered by the 24ft Lake and Bay, I needed a super skinny running shallow water boat for flats fishing in the fall and winter months. The Ft Myers area waters have extremely low tides during the winter months and to take full advantage great fishing that comes with these low tides I need a boat that floats in 6-8 inches of water and runs in half of that without tearing up the grass on the flats. I also need a boat that can carry up to four anglers plus myself and can traverse open bays with some significant chop. After searching long and hard I found the boat that I needed while fishing tournaments in Texas and Louisiana. I chose a 21.5 ft Shallow Sport flats boat that is built for fishing the lower
Texas gulf coast. This boat does everything that I want it to do. It floats in 8inches of water and runs in 3 inches. Its extremely dry in a big chop, although not that smooth due to its tunnel hull design, and can handle four anglers with ease. I mainly use this boat from September though the middle of March. We mainly drift fish the Fort Myers area flats fishing with artificial lures but the boat has a huge 45 gallon live well that is excellent for fishing with live sardines when targeting snook and redfish in March or October when the live bait is most prevalent.

     The 24ft Lake and Bay and the 21ft Shallow Sport fulfill most of my fishing needs but they don't cover everything that I fish for. I also run bass fishing charters in the Everglades and to get to the fishing grounds you need a serious running airboat. So have one of those also. I run a 14ft Alumatec Airgator airboat that is powered by a 0540 260 hp Lycoming aircraft engine. This boat is rigged with rod holders and a 12 volt trolling motor. It can carry three anglers plus myself and and do it running across dry ground for miles if we have to. I also get to use the boat to take anglers/hunters out for duck hunting trips on Lake Okeechobee when the conditions are right and the duck are thick enough to justify the trip.

 

 

Fishing Charter Boats Overview

• 2008 24 ft Lake and Bay bay boat tarpon fishing charter boat.
• 21.5 ft Shallow Sport flats fishing charter boat.
• 14ft Alumitec airboat for bass fishing and hunting trips.
• 14ft Sylvan aluminum boat that is used to assist in deep water duck hunting.
• All spinning reels are Penn Slammers. I use Penn 260's for flats fishing and 560's and 760's for tarpon fishing.
• Conventional tackle for tarpon fishing or offshore fishing are Accurate twin drag 870's.
• All flats rods are Gloomis
• Tarpon rods are American Rodsmiths Silver King series and Gloomis Pelagic series