SW FL-Bonita Beach: Almost Too Big Snook, Bull Red, Snapper & Sheepshead

Bill Story and friends, Mike, Dave, Jim, Marvin and Ed picked a nice calm morning to fish offshore with me on Tuesday, 10/28. We headed out of New Pass about eighteen miles and fished in 43 feet with live shrimp. The guys were after pan-fish for a fish-fry they planned for this week, and we did well to fill their table with keeper lane snapper, mangrove snapper, yellowtail snapper, grunts, Spanish mackerel and porgies of the whitebone and jolthead varieties. We released lots of smaller snapper, as well as short triggerfish and red grouper.

Friday morning, 11/6, Mark Murphey, Tom Stefaniak and Jerry Craig fished with me in Estero Bay. We had a great morning, mostly because of the 32 1/2 inch snook Mark caught on shrimp--It was a beauty, and we were holding our breath when we measured it. Fortunately, it fell 1/2 inch below maximum size (see photo.) The guys also caught some nice keeper sheepshead and mangrove snapper, along with four sand bream. We released crevalle jacks, an 18-inch snook and all but ten of the 35 mangs we caught. The group planned to go have their catch cooked for lunch at Fish House, then to ride back to where they were staying on Marco...probably a long ride for Tom and Jerry, listening to Mark brag the entire time!

Though Friday had been windy, it seemed calm, compared with the winds of Saturday morning. I fished Estero Bay again, this time with Jim and Kytha Eibel and their ten-year-old son, Graham. The high winds made for a tougher time fishing, but we caught three keeper sheepshead and released lots of smaller sheepies, along with snapper and two large stingrays to 20 pounds.

The storm out in the Gulf, north of us, caused our winds to grow stronger and stronger throughout the weekend. The party I was to fish with on Monday decided that even bayside fishing would be too challenging, with wind gusts predicted to reach 30-35 mph, so they deferred their Monday trip. As it turned out, winds laid down pretty nicely that morning and didn’t become gusty until after noon.

Winds were moderate Tuesday morning, when I fished Estero Bay with Ed Leroux and friend, Jim. We caught too redfish, one too small to keep at 17 inches and one a bull, too big to keep at 30 inches. We released those after photographing the larger one, along with small mangrove snapper, crevalle jacks, and two stingrays. We caught a few keeper sheepshead for table-fare.

The photos shown are of angler Adam Koenigsmark, with a 34-inch king mackerel, caught on a sand perch on a recent offshore trip, and angler Mark Murphey with his 32 ½ inch snook, caught on shrimp in Estero Bay this week.