SW FL-Bonita Beach: Redfish, Sheepshead & Snapper Inshore

Joe Hahn is expecting delivery of his new bay boat soon, and he took a morning to fish Estero Bay’s backwaters with me on Monday, 9/8/14, hoping to learn the best techniques for fishing in the backwaters. Prior to now, most of Joe’s fishing experience has been from shore. So we headed out to fish various spots in Estero Bay and Hickory Bay, and fished with live shrimp on a favorable tide. Joe landed a keeper sheepshead at 15 inches, a 12-inch sand bream, twenty mangrove snapper, three of which were keeper size, a 16-inch redfish, which he released, and two keeper redfish at 23 inches and 24 ½ inches. It was a pretty productive morning, and I think Joe is looking forward to spending many mornings that way.

Gordon and Emily Levy fished the backwaters with me on Tuesday morning, 9/16/14. Fishing a catch-and-release trip with live shrimp in lower Hickory Bay, the couple caught and released three redfish, all 16-17 inches, twenty mangrove snapper to 12 inches, a 12-inch sand bream, and a 16-inch sheepshead.

The photo shown is of angler Joe Hahn, with a 24 ½-inch redfish, caught on shrimp on a recent inshore trip.

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

fishing action videos