Give the Gift of Adventure!

With just a few weeks away from Christmas give the gift of an unforgettable experience!

Purchase a gift certificate for any of our cruises, whether it’s to watch the dolphins play on the Sunset Dolphin Cruise, or having the kids explore Picnic Island and net for seahorses, starfish and pufferfish on the Sealife Encounter Cruise. A gift certificate can also allow your friends or family to board the “Dolphin Waters” and embark on an all day Shelling and Lunch Cruise. If fishing is more their speed, then have them join our professional fishing crew and catch something spectacular on the all inclusive Backwater Fishing Trip!

Not sure about a specific trip? Thats okay too! You can purchase a gift certificate in the amount of your choosing. It's the perfect gift! 

Call 239-472-8443 or email us at info@adventuresinparadise.com to order your gift certificate today.

 

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.

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

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

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 Time on the Valentine's Sunset Cruise!

We had a beautiful day here in the low 70s with the wind 5 to 10 out of the NNW. The boat was stocked with beautiful roses, colorful cupcakes and lots of Valentine candy, including some chocolate covered cherries.

As we left the Port Sanibel Channel and entered San Carlos Bay, Dave Lamon the Host/Mate began passing around the goodies.

We soon encountered a lone Dolphin as we turned onto the Intra-Coastal, but it was not very interested in us and moved on. As we continued West on the ICW we found 5 to 6 Dolphins right in line with the Sunset. We got a little better look at them while taking in the beautiful Sunset over Pine Island. After the Sunset, with the after glow on the horizon, the air got quite chilly, but it didn't bother the folks on board as they had their Love to keep them warm! At the end of the cruise, each Lady passenger was presented a beautiful red rose.

Capt. Bob

Fishing..Dolphins..Manatee & Birds..oh my!

A little cooler today with a high of 65 and about 12 MPH wind out of the North, but it was Sunny, so not so bad. Water temp at 71. We caught quite a few fish with the 15 folks on board. Mostly Sea Trout and Ladyfish.

One Spanish Mackerel one Redfish and a couple of those cute Southern Puffers. The Dolphins were a bit too close to the boat at times for our fishing. The cormorants continued swimming around us trying to steal the fish we caught...and they did a couple of times. The Royal Terns would swoop down and steal the bait right off our hooks from time to time (evidently must be hard for them to find fish)..

It was a challenge, but we had a good time. We were visited by a Manatee who seemed to be curious about us and hung around for a while. A good day mostly because we had such great folks on board.

Captain Bob

Caught lots of fish today!

Caught lots of fish with just 5 folks on board, we had a pretty good time catching lots of Ladyfish and Spotted Sea Trout. One Sugar Trout and one pinfish..and oh yeah a stingray. Pretty much non stop action..wish you were here!

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

A full day of adventure!

What a beautiful day in the dead of Winter! Temps in the 70s and a few scattered clouds against a clear blue sky. Fishing was slow, we did manage to catch a few spotted Seatrout, a few Southern Flounder and a Ladyfish. But it was just nice being out here on the water today. At the end of the trip, a Lady confessed that she had a banana on board..could it be true that bananas will cause a poor day of fishing? :) Here is a photo of the peaceful and scenic cove where we fished for awhile!

This afternoon's Sea Life Encounter had lots of little adventurers on board! They helped Mike the naturalist collect a lot of creatures (fish, pipefish, crabs, and shrimp) from the shallow grass bed. The highlight of the trip aside from the many dolphins we saw, was the huge Striped Burfish (puffer) that we caught in our net on the deeper grass net drag.

This photo does not show how huge he was, but we caught the kids grinning about it and if you look closely, you will also see the puffer grinning as well!

Capt. Bob