Your Ultimate Guide to Fort Myers Fishing Charters: Adventures for Every Angler

Sanibel and Captiva Islands occupy a unique place in the geography of Southwest Florida fishing. These two barrier islands — connected to each other by a short bridge over Blind Pass and connected to the mainland by the Sanibel Causeway — sit at the mouth of San Carlos Bay, exactly where the warm, nutrient-rich waters of Pine Island Sound and the Caloosahatchee Estuary meet the open Gulf of Mexico. That position, geologically almost accidental, has made the waters surrounding Sanibel and Captiva some of the most consistently productive and most beautifully varied fishing grounds in the entire state.   For anglers who have never fished this specific stretch of coastline, it helps to understand why Sanibel and Captiva carry the reputation they do. The islands curve in a distinctive east-west orientation rather than the typical north-south barrier island alignment found elsewhere on Florida's Gulf Coast — a geological quirk that creates an unusually effective shell-trapping, current-s...