Bonita Beach, SW FL: Hog, Yellowtail, Spanish, Mangs, Sharks and Reds

In celebration of Harry’s birthday, brothers Grant and Harry Kurtz, along with friends Joe and Thais Allen, fished with me Monday morning, 6/9,seventeen miles west of New Pass. The Spanish mackerel bite was strong and we free-lined shrimp for those, kept nine to 27 inches, and released lots more, along with gag shorts and blue runners. We also caught whitebone porgies and two hogfish, one of which was a keeper at 14 ½ inches.

Wednesday, Van & Amy McQueen, daughter Danielle, son Peyton, Peyton’s friend Hayden Beach, and family friend Dan Neal fished with me about 17 miles out of New Pass. Amy caught a nice mutton snapper 16 inches long and the group caught a mess of Spanish mackerel to 27 inches and whitebone porgies. We released an undersized hogfish, gag and red grouper shorts, grunts and porgies, with plenty of action all morning.

Friday, fishing 26 miles west of New Pass with Dave and Carol Young, we used live shrimp to catch over a dozen keeper yellowtail snapper and we released about a half dozen smaller ones. I kept moving further offshore because we were competing with porpoise at most of my spots. We also caught some good sized whitebone porgies. We released small mangrove snapper and lots of red grouper shorts to 18 ½ inches. We also had quite a shark-fest, releasing at least fifteen sharpnose sharks, all around the three foot length.

I fished inshore Saturday morning in central Estero Bay with Jim Hammer, sons Cameron and Collin and friend, Erica Bensik. Thirty seconds after we anchored and dropped a few lines over, Jim hooked a big redfish but it ran under the trees, wrapped his line and got away. We caught another redfish keeper at twenty inches along with seven keeper mangrove snapper, all on shrimp.

The photo shown is of an 18 inch mangrove snapper caught on shrimp on a recent offshore trip.