Share your photos with us!

We would love to hear from you.

To help us better serve you and our other guests, we appreciate any comments and feedback. Photos are great too! If you would like to share your experience with us please email us at info@adventuresinparadise.com. 

Check out a few photos that were recently submitted to us. 

"Sunset Dolphin Cruise. Thanks so much, again!" 
- Norbert & Carla Froese

"I took this picture today from the boat during the trip to North Captiva Island.  We had a wonderful time.  Thank you!" 

- Lilia Lopez (Shelling & Lunch Cruise)

"Here are a few pictures from my sunset dolphin cruise. Thank you for such an amazing experience." - Ms. Maya 

We thank you for choosing Adventures In Paradise.com!

Family Fun Fishing!

Family owned and operated we try our best to make our excursions a great experience for everyone! We've recently received an email from a family that went out on the Backwater Fishing trip last week and we thought we'd share it with you! :)

"Hi--We recently enjoyed a fishing trip with you guys last Sunday and I wanted to share a few photos that we took. It was the boys first trip out on a boat and they really enjoyed themselves!!

Owen got to hold a Puffer fish and he was so excited to hold this fish and play with the shrimp while on the boat!

Blaine caught a trout and learned how to bait his own hook with the shrimp. 

We look forward to our next visit to Sanibel and our next trip with you guys!"

Sincerely-

Eric and Michele Waltimyer

To help us better serve you, we appreciate any comments and feedback. Photos are great too! If you would like to share your experience with us please email us at info@adventuresinparadise.com. 

Sunny+Dolphins=Perfect trip!

Among the sea life found on yesterday's Sealife Encounter: dozens of Pigmy Seahorses, Pipefish, and Spider Crabs.

 

We saw quite a few dolphins on the way to Picnic Island where we were able to catch several different kinds of sea creatures in the shallow grass beds.  While at the island we also saw a few more dolphins and collected many other types of sea life in our nets. Back at the boat, we dragged the miniature otter trawl through slightly deeper grass beds and found a few Striped Burr Fish, a Southern Puffer, and about a dozen Filefish as well as several Pinfish and Grass Grunts. There was one fish that we scooped up which I was unable to identify, but after some research I determined the mystery fish to be a Srawled Broom Filefish.

 

Just a quick glimpse into our paradise. Until next time. Naturalist Andrew here.

The Sealife Excursion rocks!

On today’s trip we started off with a very impressive dolphin show. We got to see a pod (group of dolphins) up close and from about a hundred yards out we were able to catch another group of dolphins performing a long series of acrobatics. 10 feet out of the air! Half a dozen times! Not kidding. 

Before the trip the weather was looking a little intimidating, but as soon as we took off, the wind died down some and the clouds parted, making for a beautiful afternoon.  Good thing the AIP Outfitters store made the order for sunshine this afternoon. ;-)  When we made it to picnic island, we waded into the water and were able to find a large assortment a little sea critters. We all found shrimps, pin fish, pipe fish, hermit crabs and fish egg sacks (they look like gobs of slim with specs inside them). One gentleman caught not one but two baby seahorses! 

We had a great time with Capatin Bob2 and to the rest of the folks on the trip we hope you all had a great time and good job on finding such a diverse group of sea life!

-Naturalist & First Mate Josh

Fun-Filled Weekend Adventures!

This weekend was a lot of fun! All of our cruises went out and Dolphins were seen on all of them, even on the Backwater Fishing! Among the other wildlife seen? Manatees! Osprey! Roseate Spoonbills! Bald Eagle! And even a Bonnethead Shark sw...imming around the boat! How cool. This week we also welcomed back two of our best naturalists, Andrew & Max, for the summer! Another great weekend in paradise.

Enjoy the following pictures that were taken by our naturalists this past weekend.  



All cruises depart from "G" dock at Port Sanibel Marina



Fish! Dolphins! Manatee!

Between the perfect weather, the fishing, and the visits from our native marine mammals the Backwater Fishing trip was another successful outing!

This morning Captain Bob II and I took eleven guests fishing in the shallow grass-flats around St. James City. The day started off a little windy with slight gusts coming out of the North West as some small morning thunderstorms rolled by, but luckily we were able to avoid the rain. As the clouds moved off and the wind died down the air and the fishing started to really heat up. Using live shrimp as bait we quickly began catching spotted sea trout, sugar trout, and a few mangrove snapper. Everyone on the trip was able to catch at least one fish including two large keeper sized Spotted Sea Trout and a handful of Spanish Mackerel that were just a hair under the limit. 

While the fish continued to bite throughout the day, the trip was full of much more than just fishing as large pods of Atlantic Bottlenose dolphins and a few Manatees continually surfaced just yards from the boat.

Awesome day today! Until next time.
- Naturalist & First Mate Andrew

A seaworthy crew today!

Aboard the Miss Paradise on our Sealife Encounter! We caught a ton of stuff in the scoop nets on picnic island. We caught baby seahorses, pipefish, grass shrimp, lots of hermit crabs, mollusks, flounder, pufferfish, blowfish (striped burr fish), and one feisty cat fish! We also learned about the areas habitat forming mangroves, the importance of healthy clean water quality, and the under water prairies, the seagrass beds.

Many thanks from Capt Bob and first mate Josh, and a great job to everyone on today's catch. Also, a special note to young tie-die wearing naturalist in training, Noah keep up the good work and keep taking those Nature classes !

Perfect weather! Perfect night for a Sunset Dolphin Cruise!

As we boarded, the Schaub family from Minnesota caught sight of a manatee alongside the docks, (thanks to the good eye of local grandson, Austin)! With just a slight coolness in the air we cruised out of Port Sanibel Marina, along Connie Mack channel where guests enjoyed seeing the magnificent homes of exclusive Jonathon Harbour to the starboard side of the channel and mangrove forest port side! Quite a dichotomy that will charm your soul!

Cruising out to the entrance of San Carlos Bay we can see Sanibel Island and many smaller islands in front of the vessel. Looking to our right we can see a long white beach…but what is that which makes the sand so white? Wow…it is literally hundreds of white pelicans that visit our waters every year this time! Such a beautiful sight!

Everyone is excited to see dolphins playing in the distant waters… (with cooler temps we weren’t sure how active the dolphins would be tonight), and the dolphins played not letting us down!
Guests visited with each other, while Captain Bill and first mate Angela pointed out areas of interest relaying Florida Cracker stories to everyone.

Gently cruising to the West, everyone became quiet, almost holding their breath as the sun began to sink from the heavens. The sky became a brilliant reddish orange! We sat quietly wishing this moment would last forever, but the sun began settling down beyond the horizon, softening the colors to a pinkish gray.
The boat did a gentle 360 turn to experience a huge, white, full moon rising! How perfect is this! So many oohs and aahs! This definitely is the perfect sun set to a perfect day!

Thanks you to all our guests that cruised with Adventures in Paradise tonight! We hope your 2012 will be as wonderful as this night has been!

Full day of Adventure!

Fishing, Sea Life & Sunset!

Fishing:
Lady from Naples with Ladyfish.

Lady from Kansas City with Spotted Sea Trout.

Gentleman from Kansas City with Bull Shark, and 4th Photo- Gentleman with Spanish Mackerel.

Sea Life: Folks enjoyed Dip netting at Picnic Island, seeing the Dolphins nearby the Island.The deep net drag turned up lots of Pin fish and several Striped Burrfish also known as puffers.

Here is a beautiful Sunset tonight.

Capt Bob

Lots of Brown Pelicans seen on the Sunset Cruise!

Considering the cold it was a pretty good trip tonight..always beautiful here.

31 hardy passengers from various states including Indiana, North Carolina, and as far North as Minnesota. But it was chilly for all. A 15MPH wind out of the NW. We went up the Caloosahatchee (river), to help keep the wind to our backs.

Beaching the boat at Big Shell Island, we sat and watched the sunset along with about a dozen brown pelicans sitting nearby on the sandy point of the island Continuing up river, we soon spotted two dolphins and spent some time with them. They would appear, then dissappear many times, but never went very far from the boat. The water here is relatively deep and the air is cold, perhaps they kept warmer staying down a little longer. We turned around at Little Shell Island, which is a subject of interest by itself.
Capt. Bob

Wonderful day of cruising!

We had a very good fishing trip with a large family of 11 from Illinos and a family of 4 from Virginia. The weather has changed, we are now getting 10mph out of the NW and the water temp has dropped from 74 to 71. Air Temp in the upper 70,s. Trying to hide from the wind, we still did ok, catching some Sugar Trout, and small Sea Trout at the first stop. Then we moved not more than quarter mile and there we caught several Spanish Mackerel, a few Spotted Trout and a Flounder..and a few unmentionables such as Lizardfish and Catfish (and a pretty little Squirrelfish)

On the SeaLife Encounter: Almost routine, Dolphins several times, great fun for folks at Picnic Island catching all the small creatures that we usualy catch,fish shrimp,etc.. Then in the Big net drag, we caught several fish, pinfish, sugar trout, and a cute little Southern Puffer.

The Sunset Dolphin cruise got a little chilly (about 65 degrees and dropping fast), but 36 brave folks went with us to see the Sunset and find some Dolphins. Because the wind was coming out of the NW, decided to go up the River with the wind to our backs. Checked on our active Osprey nest..still can't see the chicks. Spotted a Bald Eagle on BigShell Island then on up to Little Shell Island (very Interesting) we found a Dolphin and we got to look at him for awhile, even though it appeared he was having dinner. We had a beautiful Sunset from Big Shell Island. A good day..but make it warmer..Please!

Capt. Bob

Fishing, Fishing & More Fishing!!

This is what we started out in this morning.

But it wasn't as bad as it looked, we could see well enough to find some pretty good fishing spots. We had a great time, the Ladyfish were everywhere and trout and a few other fish put in appearances. Young man with first Ladyfish.

A Lady very happy about catching her Ladyfish.
We had the "Lizardfish Lady" on board catching several Lizard fish until she decided to become "Ladyfish Lady" and caught several Ladyfish.

Then near the end of the trip a Spanish Mackerel showed up and the Lady who caught it invited it to dinner. :)

The Fog had lifted just in time for the Sealife Encounter uncovering a beautiful blue sky with a few clouds and with the 83 degree temp, a very nice day. Water temp was 73 degrees and just a slight breeze out of the South. We did have a chance of rain today..6% up from 4% yesterday and 2% the day before..needless to say, we didn't worry about rain. No photos as camera on the blink. We had a great time with Dolphins swimming along side the boat so that they could get a good look at us. Everyone had fun dip net fishing at Picnic Island and pretty much caught the usual, crabs, lots of shrimp, pipe fish, hermit crabs and jellycombs. The deepwater net drag revealed may pinfish, file fish and striped burrfish (puffer). A nice afternoon boat trip with a great bunch of folks on board..we had fun..

Capt. Bob

Fishing. Wow! This turned out to be an athletic event with all the fish being caugh almost non-stop!

Everybody caught fish Mostly Ladyfish and Spotted Sea Trout.. We had a great time.

Sealife Encounter. The weather cannot be better. Working our way toward Picnic Island, we spent some time with several pods of Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphin. The dip net catch at Picnic was a lot of fun with shrimp and baby pin fish and jelly combs and a some hermit crabs. Our deep water net drag caught a prize seahorse and a huge Blue Crab held by Mike Cohn the Naturalist. Another great trip!

Sunset. Went up the river for a change and immediately spotted a Bald Eagle. In the river, below the Eagle, were several doplhins swimming around. We spent most of our time watching the dolphins who became quite frisky. Hard to take our eyes off the dolphins to watch the beautiful Sunset over Pine Island, but it was a beauty! It's really been a great day here!

Capt. Bob

Great Day for a Boat Ride! And a Sea Life Encounter..adventure!

Folks from Rhode Island, Michigan, and Florida were with us. The air was a bit cool (about 71 degrees with a slight breeze out of the SW), water temp is about 65 degrees. The air was clear with a beautiful deep Blue Sky. Passing by Connie Mack Island we observed quite a few water birds: Cormorants, a Yellow Crown Night Heron, an Anhinga, Brown Pelicans, and took a look at the nesting Osprey at the end of our Channel (we'll get a picture next time). Not long after turning on to the Gulf ICW (Intra Coastal Waterway), we encountered several of our wild Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphin. Always a joy to see. We stopped at Picnic Island to fish with Dip Nets in the shallows.

A nice variety of creatures: Shrimp, crabs, Pipe fish, several variety of small fish and several small sea horses and interestingly a scorpion fish (haven't seen them for years). Our big net drag in the deeper grass bed turned up some fascinating creatures as well: A Southern Puffer, a small Striped Burr Fish (puffer)and a small fish we we could not identify and several other fish and crabs.

Capt. Bob