Coastal Sealife and Shelling Archives - Good Time Charters

Fort Myers Beach Sunsets

bjs — Sun, 06 Apr 2014 14:02:50 +0000

The manatees are back! We have been seeing more and more manatees around and they have been in our marina almost every morning lately. These gentle giants are herbivores and love to snack on sea grass. Our water temperature around Fort Myers Beach have been getting warmer and they love the warmer water. Our dolphins are here all year and have been busy feeding on our fish and showing off for spectators. We now have 2 rescued seahorses in our aquarium and they are doing well feeding on bits of fresh shrimp and brine shrimp that we catch off the docks. Stop by and see them! The weather here is beautiful right now sunny and warm!

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Fishing and Dolphin Watch Fort Myers Beach

bjs — Mon, 03 Feb 2014 17:32:49 +0000

Fishing has been great around Fort Myers beach and Estero bay. Capt Mike has been reporting a good red fish bite near the mangroves and oyster bars. He has also been getting 5-9 pound sheepshead off the near shore reef. Lots of good action in the back waters! I attached a photo of a long time regular of ours with a nice red fish he caught. This one had to be released because it was bigger than the legal length but, don’t worry, he caught plenty keepers too. If you haven’t already booked your fishing charter for February, you need to call ASAP because the month is nearly full. The dolphins around Fort Myers Beach have been very active and playful! We were fortunate to spot a group of manatees on a recent tour also. The water temperature is a little cool for them after the cold fronts that passed through the area in January but we are having an awesome week with the weather so far. The shelling has been outstanding and our naturalists have been enjoying all the sea stars and other cool sea life that we have been finding on our Coastal Sealife dolphin and shelling cruise. I know a lot of our visitors are eagerly anticipating their visit here to Fort Myers beach to defrost and have some fun in the sun! Not to brag but it is reaching the mid 80’s today!! Yay! Thanks for checking us out and we hope to have you out with us soon- Capt Cristina and the rest of the Good Time Family!

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Fort Myers Beach Fishing and Dolphin Charters

bjs — Fri, 22 Nov 2013 17:59:26 +0000

Can you Boogie like a Batfish? Sure you can! Despite the pretty red lips these Batfish are some the strangest looking fish in our bay! With the broad head region they sure look funny when they swim. Their entire front end shakes side to side like a funny dance. Though these fish prefer not to swim around a whole lot, too much work you see, especially since they clearly are not designed for speed. They prefer to sit on the sea floor bottom, maybe use those bottom fins to “walk” around, and wait for something tasty to eat to swim close by. They are pretty sneaky with that great camouflage to blend in. It may seem they lack a dorsal fin but actually it is modified, moveable, and small so they can use it to lure shrimp, crab and other fare. Two new species of batfish were discovered in the Gulf of Mexico as recently as 2010! We recently had this Batfish in our aquarium at Snook Bight marina for a few days to show off before letting him return back to the bay. Stop in and see us and our aquarium! We always have something new in the tank and love to show off our fish friends! Our Dolphin tours around Fort myers Beach have been so fun! Lots of dolphin and still some manatees around as well. Capt Mike is sooo busy with fishing charters and if you haven’t booked with him yet for the holidays you might miss out. We are so thankful for all of our regulars and repeat guests!! We always try harder to make your revisit better than your 1st! Give us a call or better yet stop by and see us and our displays!

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Fort Myers Beach Dolphin Watch and Fishing charters

bjs — Mon, 14 Oct 2013 13:49:43 +0000

It’s October and we are experiencing the best weather all year so far. October is our favorite month of the year here in Fort Myers Beach. Highs in the upper 80s and lows in the lower 70s. WOOHOO! This is perfect weather for boating, fishing, and paddling! The dolphins have been very active feeding and one of our resident groups of dolphin have a new calf!! If you have been on our cruises before, you may be familiar with Floppy’s pod, well there is a new calf in the pod now! AHH, they are so cute and playful!!! The other day we sat idle and watched the new calf jumping out of the water, as if to say “Mom, Look what I can do!” We have also been seeing manatees still in good abundance around Fort Myers Beach. The other day we lucked out and found a group of about 5 of them grazing so we sat idle and watched them for a little bit then left them alone to eat in peace.

The mornings have been perfect conditions for Stand Up Paddleboarding. I took out some local ladies paddleboarding yesterday and we saw dolphins and a mother manatee with her calf. If anyone needs a birthday idea we had a local lady book a charter with us as a surprise birthday party for her husband’s 60th bday. She even made cool t-shirts for everyone on the charter! I attached a pic of the birthday boy and a couple of his friends sporting the fun t-shirts.

Fishing has been so good and the redfish bite is ON!! Capt Mike has been bringing in some really happy fishermen and women with their catch. Besides redfish, I have also seen snapper, shark, and sheepshead on the cleaning table.

I performed a wedding ceremony a couple weekends ago and the wedding went off without a hitch. The weather was amazing, the water was calm, and the happy couple exchanged some amazing vows. If you need an officiant for your wedding in Fort Myers Beach give us a call. I’m off to clean our aquarium, so like my friend Rusty says, “Peace out, Sauerkraut!” – Capt Cristina and the rest of the Good Time Family

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Fort Myers Beach Things to do, Sunset cruises and Fishing Charters

bjs — Sun, 08 Sep 2013 16:14:17 +0000

Soapfish

We have a live educational exhibits at Snook Bight marina on Fort Myers Beach! Stop in and see what interesting sea life we have to show you! Currently, we have a couple soapfish as temporary residents. I attached a picture of the 2 soapfish we have in the aquarium. A fun fact about these soapfish is they deter potential predators by releasing a slimy,sudsy, toxic body mucus. These fish don’t get very big, maybe a foot tops, and when you are a small fish in big water you gotta be creative otherwise you’ll get eaten! Stop by and see our exhibit that is always changing so you never know what we will have on display! Our dolphin wildlife cruises have been so much fun as usual! The shelling has been really good for this time of year and it only gets better in the Spring! Capt Mike has been reporting a slower redfish bite, but has been doing really well with trout, snapper, and sheephead. September is our slowest month of the year so please call ahead to make sure we have dolphin tours available for when you want to go out as we have lots of boat maintenance scheduled for the last 2 weeks of the month. Thanks for reading and we hope to have you all out with us real soon!

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Fort Myers Beach things to do

bjs — Fri, 19 Jul 2013 15:40:17 +0000

Fort Myers Beach dolphin cruises and fishing charters. We have been having a great July so far! Lots of manatee sightings and playful dolphins around. I have been enjoying all the birds too! Lots of pelican, egret, and heron chics this year! They are so cute. I attached a pic I took of Great Blue Heron chics patiently waiting for mom or dad to bring back some food. I volunteer when I can to assist the Estero Bay Aquatic Preserve bird monitoring program and I really enjoy watching the chics grow up. They grow so fast though! You know a brown pelican chic is full grown in 3 months? Come join us for a cruise and learn more about this beautiful ecosystem!

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Fort Myers Beach Things to Do and Activities

bjs — Sat, 06 Jul 2013 17:16:08 +0000

Can you do a headstand? I can’t either. But recently we have met a lot of folks that can…on a paddleboard! If you don’t know what that is, it is basically a board that floats. Now I have been practicing yoga my entire life and apply it to lots of everyday situations that I encounter. But the headstand has always been difficult for me, now crow, full wheel, wild thing etc., no problem, even on a paddleboard. Oh well, I guess that gives me yet another goal. I attached a pic of one young man who was out on a recent tour with me and had never been on a paddleboard before. He did a headstand as if it was no big deal. Now don’t worry folks, we don’t make you do headstands on our tours, we just think it is really cool if you can! Capt Mike has been busy with fishing as usual. I attached a photo of a long time regular, Mrs Turken, with a beautiful red fish that she caught in Estero Bay Fort Myers Beach. The dolphins and manatees have been regular encounters on all our tours this summer around Fort Myers Beach! We never tire of seeing the wildlife here. We are so lucky to be in such a beautiful area!

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Fort Myers Beach Activities

bjs — Thu, 27 Jun 2013 17:43:08 +0000

We have been having such a great summer so far, I am not even sure where to begin! June is nearly over and we were busier than ever! Thank you to everyone that has joined us for an excursion, those who recommended us to others, and all our return customers that keep coming back to visit us! The waters of Fort Myers Beach are teaming with dolphins, manatees, and lots of birds! The sunset cruises have been booked up every evening and we have seen some gorgeous sunsets so far this summer. We did take a day to play hooky and have our semi-annual crew appreciation party. The whole crew, including our Everglades Adventure guides, got on the Good Time Charter boat to spend a day on the water with each other. We ended up all the way up by North Captiva island and decided to throw the anchor to go paddleboarding and for a swim. While we were there, this boat was high and dry so we thought it would make a fun prop for a group photo. Capt Joe tried paddleboarding for the 1st time and did great!! See more pics of our day together here: Crew album. We had a wonderful lunch on the way back at Grandma Dot’s on Sanibel. What a great day we had and what a collection of very special people we have on our crew. In other news, I have once again donated my hair- another 11 inch pontytail. That makes my 3rd donation of hair to Locks for Love and I sure hope they are able to use them to accomplish their wonderful goal. Capt Mike has been busy fishing as usual! Lots of shark around right now near shore and in the passes. The other day he caught a nurse, hammerhead, bonnethead, and a black tip all on the same charter! Wow, that was some fun action! We were recently voted Best of the Beach’s Fishing Charter boat yet again this year! Thank you to every one that voted for us and we will keep up the hard work to hopefully win it again next year! Well folks, we really hope you consider us when making your plans for your next outing. Please book early! Hope to see y’all on Fort Myers Beach really soon! Cheers, Cristina and the Good Time Charters Crew

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Fort Myers Beach fishing and dolphin Cruises

bjs — Fri, 03 May 2013 13:19:39 +0000

Check out these recent photos from a couple of our trips departing Fort Myers beach! Dolphins are out enjoying all the tasty fish that are around right now! We have been spotting more and more manatees too out on our tours and as the water keeps warming up we anticipate being able to spot them on nearly all of our trips. Sometimes in the hot summer months we see more manatees than we do dolphins. Capt Mike is reporting some great activity in the fishing with lots of bait fish near the top water and shorelines attracting lots of birds and snook. I was beach combing with some passengers on a coastal sealife and dolphin cruise the other day and a snook (for all our land lubbin’ friends, snook is a prized sport fish around here) swam completely out of the water, right in front of us, in pursuit of some bait fish. He was hungry! He wiggled and managed to quickly get back in the water to continue his quest. Different species of shark are also around, mainly black tip as shown in the recent photo of one of our recent anglers on a Fort Myers beach fishing charter with Capt Mike. It sure was a busy April for us despite some of the rain days and we thank all of our passengers, returns, regulars, and those that recommend us to friends. We couldn’t be here without all of you. It is more than just taking you all out and showing you wildlife, it is more about interpreting why we should care about the wildlife we have here and the environment they are existing in, and why estuaries like ours and all around the world are so important. And of course, ensuring you all enjoy boating in a fun and safe environment! Thank you for reading and hope to hear from you soon! XO-Capt Cristina and the rest of our Good Time Family

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Fort Myers Beach dolphin cruises, kayak, and fishing charter

bjs — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 20:47:17 +0000

The weather at Fort Myers Beach is beautiful and the wildlife abundant! We are spotting more manatees feeding on the grass beds and were lucky enough to observe a mother with her calf swim by our boat as we sat in neutral. What a treat that was! Our passengers on our coastal sealife dolphin cruise have been finding live sea stars and huge conchs, all safely released before we leave the shell island. Our kayakers this morning also found some huge whelks on their tour this morning. Capt Mike has been fishing all day every day and the red fish bite has been on fire! Our sunset cruises from Fort Myers Beach have been a lot of fun too!

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