Three Fishermen Venue Hooks Fort Myers Offshore

No matter how long you’ve lived in the place you call home—no matter how well you think you know it—there’s always something to be discovered. Most of the members of Fort Myers Offshore, for example, hadn’t been to Three Fishermen Restaurant in North Fort Myers, Fla., until yesterday. The nonprofit, scholarship fundraising powerboat-club had never organized a lunch run to the Caloosahatchee River venue. But the hurricanes of the past few years erased the docks at several popular Fort Myers Offshore destinations, so organizers Tim and Cyndee had to find replacements.

Jeremy and Kristie Tschida and their son, Tyler, ran their Outerlimits Offshore Powerboat SC 37 catamaran. Photos by Eily Perez copyright EP Pro Media.

Last year’s discovery was the Riviera Bar and Grill in Punta Gorda, and it quickly became a club favorite. This year’s new find is Three Fishermen Restaurant.

“This is my favorite event of the year,” said Tim Hill, to his wife, Cyndee, and a reporter as they idled away from the waterfront location in the Hill’s 2000 model-year Skater 32B catamaran.

Cyndee nodded and smiled. “I loved it,” she replied.

Three Fisherman Restaurant in North Fort Myers provided a perfect set-up for the Fort Myers Offshore group.

That their 32-foot catamaran made it both ways surely added to their delight. Since the acquiring outboard engine-powered cat two years ago, they have run it in exactly two Fort Myers Offshore events and completed one without a mechanical issue. So even if the new venue had flopped with the club’s members, the Hills’ would have notched a victory.

But the bigger relief for the couple was that the venue pleased the 175-plus club members on hand. Tim Hill had worried about having enough dock space for 56 registered boats. The floating docks at the venue could have handled another 20 boats—at least.

No one had trouble finding enough dock space at the venue. Photo courtesy/copyright Duane C. Adams.

“This was too easy,” he said. “We didn’t even have work at it get everyone tied up.”

Their other worry? Could the restaurant handle 175 guests at one time ordering off the menu, which was what the venue wanted, rather than a buffet?

Jesse and Stephanie Neumann treated employees from their excavation business in Minnesota and their families to the flawless day on the water.

Yet handle it they did. A couple of hungry club members grumbled about the time it took to get food, but the rest were content to kick back with a cold beverage and savor the best weather and water conditions of the club’s 2024/2025 season. (Participants in the prior run to the Naples Hyatt House a few weeks ago are still talking about how rough it was.)

A record-setting 56 Fort Myers Offshore members registered their boats for the event.

“It couldn’t be done with just a phone call,” Cyndee Hill explained. “I had to go in and speak to the general manager. I said, ‘This is what I want to do,’ and I showed him pictures from past events. He said he wasn’t sure he could do it but wanted to call the owner. It wasn’t even 30 seconds later that he came back with answer. The owner said, ‘I want them. Let’s do it’”

In what amounted to a buy-out, the restaurant closed to the general public from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

“I would love to have more venues like that,” she said. “They aren’t easy to find, but they’re out there.”