SW FL-Bonita Beach: Nice gags, snapper & sheepshead

Monday, 11/24, I fished with Jerry and Barb Rudan, from Wisconsin. They have been fishing with me for years and were looking forward to some good eating-fish. We managed that with two keeper gag grouper at 23 inches and 24 inches, eleven keeper mangrove snapper to 15 inches, and one 25 inch Spanish mackerel. We released lots of short gags. We used shrimp and sardines, with both the groupers caught on shrimp, in 49 feet 22 miles out of New Pass.

Alene Haug, son Scott Kempfert, daughter Amy Akerberg and granddaughter Erica Akerberg fished central Estero Bay with me on Tuesday morning. The big sheepshead that have moved into the backwaters for winter were biting well, and we caught five nice-sized keepers to 18 inches, along with a half dozen keeper mangrove snapper, all on live shrimp. We released cravalle jacks.

Wayne and Sue Detling, son, Tom, and daughter-in-law, Kelley, fished the reefs with me Wednesday morning. Despite weather forecasts calling for calm, two-foot seas, we fished in three-footers off the beach, with a swell rolling in from offshore. We came in a little early, in fact, due to rough conditions, after catching keeper mangrove snapper, grunts and sheepshead. We released gag grouper shorts to 19 inches and a couple of small flounder.

After a day off for the Thanksgiving holiday, Jim McCarthy, his daughter, Mead, and their friend, Dave, fished with me Friday in 48 feet about 20 miles west of New Pass. We used shrimp and sardines to catch twenty-two keeper mangrove snapper, a nice lane snapper and as few good-sized whitebone porgies. We released lots of gag and red grouper shorts, along with one 21 inch true black grouper that was an inch short of legal size.

Saturday morning, as winds picked up in advance of our next cold front, I fished central Estero Bay with Vince Tomlinson, his son, Mike, his daughter, Katie, and Katie’s boyfriend, Joe Kavanagh. Baited with shrimp, we caught six keeper mangrove snapper and seven sheepshead to 16 inches.

The photo shown is of angler Thomas Sylvester with a 37 inch king mackerel, caught on a live shrimp on a recent offshore Fishbuster Charter.