Sanibel captiva for Christmas

[airborned]

Have any of you been to the Sanibel Captiva Islands? If so let me know about some fun things to do here. I have been here for a couple days been offshore fishing and fishing around all the little holes that I can find. The lack of Shiner Bock beer is kind of disappointing but other than that it's really pretty it's about 80° here but if you have been and know if some fun hole in the wall things to do let me know!

[Excaliber]

Have any of you been to the Sanibel Captiva Islands? If so let me know about some fun things to do here. I have been here for a couple days been offshore fishing and fishing around all the little holes that I can find. The lack of Shiner Bock beer is kind of disappointing but other than that it's really pretty it's about 80° here but if you have been and know if some fun hole in the wall things to do let me know!

I lived in Ft. Myers on a canal just north of the Cape Coral Bridge and explored the area extensively for several years by both land and sea.

If you have a boat, you can go up the Caloosahatchee River to the Orange River in the area of the power plant and see large numbers of manatees in the warm water discharge. There's also a car accessible park there where you can see the manatees from small viewing platforms.

If you want to see dolphins close up, the area of San Carlos Bay where the channel takes you past Picnic Island is a great place for watching them particularly when the tide is running. You can see quite a few in a very short time.

There's also a grass flat behind picnic Island just off the channel where the trout are almost as thick as the grass when the tide is coming in. Land on Picnic Island and wait for the tide to turn, then cast net for bait on the back channel side of the island. The grass flat is between the channel and the island in water that's only about 2 feet deep. You have to walk your boat in to get close, but the fishing is phenomenal when the tide is running- 1 trout per cast almost as fast as you can get the bait in the water.

Cayo Costa State Park is a wonderful place to visit with miles of pristine beaches for shelling, swimming, fishing, and whatever. It is only accessible by boat - your own or via a ferry that runs from Pine Island. The ferry trip is worthwhile with the captain pointing out sea and bird life along the way. It's a full day excursion where you bring everything - food, water, and whatever. There are no stores or cars on the island. If you walk a ways down the beach from the area where the ferry drops folks, you can easily have a half mile or so of beach all to yourself. I highly recommend a trip there.

If the shrimp boats are working off Ft. Myers Beach, you can often sail into the general area and hail them by radio (don't approach without doing that first - you will likely be regarded as potentially hostile and treated accordingly) to get a cooler of fresh shrimp in exchange for a case or two of beer. You can't get shrimp any fresher, and the price is right.

I hope this info helps you get the most out of your trip to a beautiful part of Florida.

[airborned]

I will talk to wife into the state park trip on a sidenote we took a boat trip to an island around Tarpon Bay where they had a nice little restaurant and a whole lot of shelling and Manatee watching where I fished and went snorkeling it was a good time. We are going to ding darling state park tomorrow. I'm pretty excited about the state park trips I am a park ranger for the Texas Parks and wildlife department so I like to see how they run their parks in Florida. I think I will hit up blind Pass between Sanibel and Captiva for some snook tomorrow I seen a lot of people catching them tonight. I live in Galveston but we do not have Snook out there so I will be excited to catch one. No I do not have a boat if I did I would be spending the entire week on it LOL.


Edit. We went to cayo costa state park today. It was a good time. I just couldn't remember the name.