Fishing Charter - Sanibel Island

Every year our school hosts a fishing tournament as a fundraiser for our athletic department. This year, my husband, two sisters and I decided to charter a boat and fish in the tournament. We ended up chartering a boat from M. E. Fishing Charters and had Captain Gary Jenkins and he was so awesome. He kept us laughing the whole time, while helping us catch great fish. 

For the tournament, we needed to weigh in two reds and a trout - so that is what we set out to get. We met at Punta Rassa Boat Ramp at 7:30 AM (bright and early to start our adventure). Above is us about to take off - sleepy eyes and all (just in case you were curious, we were at a football game the night before until almost midnight so the morning came real early). 

Anyways, if you are a fisherman by nature, you might know how a day on the water goes already, but if not, let me brief you. First we went to two different locations for bait fish. You have to catch bait fish to use to catch real fish (like trout and reds). We caught little minnows and then lucked out (apparently) and caught some lady fish (which our captain chopped up to use as bait! - ew, gross!)

Then after a 30 minute boat ride, we were to where we would park for the day to catch those red fish. Our captain was out the whole day before scouting and had seen some redfish here. We hadn't had our poles in the water for 5 minutes, when we got a bite on not only one of our hooks, but two. These fish are fighters and both my sister, Bri, and Josh successfully reeled those suckers into the boat. Bri's weighed in at 5 lbs 9 oz and Josh's weighed in at 3 lbs 14 oz. We sat on that same spot for another 1.5 hours and only caught 10 catfish, 1 snook, and 2 trout (about 1 pound each). We ate some lunch while we waited, then tried another spot for redfish for about an hour, hoping to catch some. No such luck. 

We were happy though because we caught all 3 of the fish that we needed, so we counted the day a success and headed in to weigh in at the beach. The ride was crazy bumpy and we laughed the whole time as waves splashed all over us as we drove. 

And honestly, who wouldn't want to look at this stud all day?! (insert heart eye emoji)

Here's a photo of the red that Josh caught & the one sis caught! Seriously, y'all, fishing is kind of fun. 

And one more team picture of us with our Captain. 

 P.S. We LOVE our Qalo rings. They literally let us do anything that we want to do without worrying about losing our real wedding rings. They come in so many different shapes and colors and we seriously own 3-4 each. I probably almost wear them more than I wear my real wedding bands (sorry, but they are just seriously so comfortable!)

If you've never been fishing before, definitely go out on the water one day! And if you use Captain Gary Jenkins, tell him that we sent you by telling him "Look at me. I am the captain now."

-Josh & Hil