SW FL-Bonita Beach: Gulf & Bay Short Report

Jim Neswald and Kevin Mysliwiec fished with me in rough conditions Saturday morning, 10/4. Seas were much rougher than predicted but we headed out of New Pass to about 35 feet with a bait-well full of live shrimp. We caught nine keeper mangrove snapper to 14 inches, half a dozen whitebone porgies to 14 inches and a few Spanish mackerel to 26 inches. We released lots of red and gag grouper shorts and three undersized mutton snapper.

Sunday morning, I fished central Estero Bay with John Kelley, Chris McClutthy and Jim Horak. It was windy and the tide was dead-low, outgoing all day, making the fishing a little tough. But we caught three keeper mangrove snapper and a nice whiting and we released cravalle jacks, a 17 inch redfish and smaller whiting.

The photo shown is of angler, Amy McQueen, with a 16 inch mutton snapper, caught on a live shrimp on a recent offshore Fishbuster Charter.