SW FL-Bonita Beach: Macks, Mangs & Muttons Offshore; Big Bay Sheepies

Lynn Harned, Davis Jenkins, Bruce Welsh and Bob Wogtowicz had planned an offshore trip with me for Wednesday, 11/19, but a cold front that dropped temps to the lowest of the season that morning, accompanied by high winds and building seas, caused us to reschedule for Friday. We fished Friday morning, just ahead of the next cold-front’s arrival, in the calmer seas between fronts. We headed out of New Pass about 19 miles and used live shrimp to catch ten nice mangrove snapper to 15 inches, three mutton snappers to 17 inches mutton snapper, three king mackerel to 26 inches, a 22 inch Spanish mackerel, and keeper-sized triggerfish and whitebone porgies. The guys kept the mangs, one mutton and one king for table-fare and we released all the rest, along with lots of gag grouper shorts to 21 ½ inches.

I fished on a very windy Saturday morning in Estero Bay with Sue Esposito and her children, Joe, age ten, and Lisa, age twelve. We fished with live shrimp along the mangrove shoreline and oyster bars, staying as sheltered from the wind as possible, and had good success with sheepshead, catching five nice ones to 18 inches. We also caught nine keeper mangrove snapper and released lots of smaller snapper and sheepshead.

The photo shown is of angler Dave Kovach with a 21 1/2 inch red grouper and a triggerfish, caught on a live shrimp on a recent offshore Fishbuster Charter.