SW FL-Bonita Beach: A Little Girl and a Big Red

It's that time of year when fishing trips are spaced more sparsely. Add to that a three-day hiatus in celebration of a wedding anniversary and the net result is just a couple of days on the water this week.

Tuesday morning, 8/25, I headed out of New Pass about eighteen miles with Harold Matthews, his son, Chad, and Chad's wife, Misty. Seas were not as calm as predicted on the way out, but they did calm as the morning progressed. We caught four nice porgies and porkfish on shrimp, but we did more releasing than keeping. We released lots of undersized gag grouper, lane snapper and yellowtail snapper. We also had fun catching and releasing two goliath grouper, 35 pounds and 45 pounds.

Eleven-year old, Anna Perry and her dad, Evan Perry, fished central Estero Bay with me, using live shrimp, Thursday morning. Anna had done some fishing from piers but had never before fished from a boat. She had no trouble acclimating: The first catch of the day was Anna’s 25-inch redfish (see photo), which she reeled in on her own, from beneath the mangroves around New Pass. She also caught a 12-inch sheepshead and three trout, one of which was a 16-inch keeper. Add to that mix eight keeper-sized mangrove snapper, five of which the father-daughter team kept.