SW FL-Bonita Beach: Red Grouper & Snapper

After some rainy days, one no-show customer (that makes twice within a month, and is oh-so annoying), and a few seasonally slow days, I finally got out fishing again on Tuesday, 10/9, when I fished 22 miles west of New Pass with Scott Severaid, Gregg Hass, Todd Vershaw, Jason White and Mike Wernsman. We used pinfish for our big-game fishing and shrimp for table-fare. The guys caught and released an 80-pound goliath grouper (photo shown). Red grouper were abundant, though we didn’t land any keepers. We released about fifty of those, to 19 ¾ inches, just shy of keeper-size. The group also released twenty mangrove snapper shorts. They caught about twenty lane snapper, a dozen of which were keepers, along with a keeper porkfish and a mess of grunts.

Thursday, 10/11, I headed out 22 miles from New Pass in some rough morning seas, which calmed somewhat later in the day. I fished with Dave Carey, Steve Wanner, John Faletto and George Siamuanes. We used live shrimp for everything but the groupers, which preferred pinfish. The guys caught about forty lane snapper, twenty of which were keepers at 11-12 inches. They also caught a half dozen 11-inch, keeper porkfish, a keeper mangrove snapper, a mess of grunts and a few nice whitebone porgies. They released twenty red grouper to 19 ½ inches, along with ladyfish, two dozen yellowtail snapper shorts and a couple dozen mangrove shorts.

You can check out all of our shark and goliath grouper action videos at the following link:

fishing videos