Saturday, 4/16/11 … dolphins and Charlie, the great blue heron

Dolphins are almost always our companions at some point in our fishing charters.  I would say we see them on 80%+ of our trips, maybe 90%+.  New folks on the boat are always surprised and delighted by how close the dolphins come to the boat and how the dolphins seem to take great joy in playing in the wake of the boat.

Both dolphins and humans fish the bay and the gulf around Sanibel and Captiva for the same reason – there are a lot of fish in these waters and it is generally a very healthy ecosystem.  An adult Atlantic bottle-nose dolphin eats about 40 pounds of fish a day, so they are constantly feeding.  The dolphins in our area are a little bit smaller, about 8-10 feet at maturity, than the bootle-nose dolphins found more broadly in the Atlantic.

While we sometimes have to literally run away from dolphins because they are so nosy, meddlesome and busy trying to steal our fish, I am a big fan of the dolphins and we’re lucky to have them.

Charlie, the great blue heron, was another companion that spent years with me before Hank took over his first mate position on the boat.  Charlie’s territory was the flats and inlets right around Castaways on Santiva.

I would see Charlie every morning when I left at first light and he would spend the day guarding his territory against any encroachment from other great blue herons and fishing on the mud bars and and mangroves.  When I returned at noon from the first trip or at the end of the day, Charlie would fly to my boat and perch himself on the bow as my guide as we came in to the dock.  His purpose was to insure that he received any scraps as I cleaned the day’s catch.

I also had to watch Charlie like a hawk, because he was devious and had a tendency to raid the live well, if I left it untended!

Captain Joey Burnsed ~ call 239-472-8658 or email captjoefred@gmail to book a charter.