Your Estero Bay Playbook
Florida’s first aquatic preserve is your backyard for the day. Here’s where our family sends friends — dolphins, sandbars, beaches and dock-up lunch spots.
Florida’s first aquatic preserve is your backyard for the day. Here’s where our family sends friends — dolphins, sandbars, beaches and dock-up lunch spots.
From our dock you can reach the beaches at New Pass in about 15 minutes and Lovers Key in about 20. Popular stops: dolphin watching at the passes, anchoring at sandbars, Dog Beach, Big Hickory Island shelling, a slow cruise up the Imperial River, and waterfront restaurants like The Fish House and Flippers on the Bay. The open Gulf is off-limits for rentals.
| Closest beach | New Pass — about 15 minutes |
|---|---|
| Crowd favorite | Lovers Key — about 20 minutes |
| With the pup | Dog Beach — about 20 minutes |
| Lunch on the water | The Fish House · Flippers on the Bay |
| Wildlife | Dolphins (likely!), manatees, ospreys, rays |
Your odds are excellent — especially around New Pass and Big Hickory Pass on a moving tide. Cut the throttle and let them come to you; they love to play in boat wakes. Remember it's illegal to feed, touch or chase them.
15–20 min from the dock
Anchor in knee-deep water and wade ashore. New Pass beaches, Lovers Key and Big Hickory Island are the classics — white sand, warm shallows, great shelling after a tide change.
Two anchors on every boat
The Fish House and Flippers on the Bay both have docks — pull up, tie off, and order grouper tacos like a local. Both are marked on your boat's map.
Marked on your helm map
Snook around the mangroves, redfish on the oyster bars, trout over the grass flats — Estero Bay has been famous for it since it became Florida's first aquatic preserve in 1966. Rods ($15) and shrimp ($5) at our dock; ask the crew what's biting.
Non-residents 16–64 need a FWC license
One of the few off-leash beaches in Southwest Florida, about 20 minutes from our dock. Dogs ride free on our boats and don't count toward passenger capacity — bring the whole pack.
20 min from the dockManatees are out there — slow-moving shadows in the shallows, more common in cooler months. Spotting one is special; harassing one is a crime in Florida. No feeding, touching or crowding any marine mammal. Watch your wake in marked manatee zones, tilt up in the shallows, and give ospreys, rays and sea turtles the right of way. The bay stays this good because everyone treats it that way.
Dolphins at the pass or lunch at the Fish House? Reserve your pontoon and decide on the way.