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Fishing Report - Naples, Ft. Myers, Bonita Beach & Estero Bay
Capt. Dave Hanson
April 15, 2006
Fort Myers - Saltwater Fishing Report
his week brought all the winds and high seas that we were lucky to have missed for most of last month. In addition to the rough seas offshore, there were dead low tides in Estero Bay. I cancelled all my trips through Wednesday.
On Thursday, Dan Mackinnon and a friend wanted to take their sons out fishing, so we gave it a try, with four youngsters on board, at the reefs off Bonita Beach. It was still sloppy in the gulf, but better than it had been so far this week. The boys had fun catching and releasing small fish, mostly blue runners.
I had an instructional trip on Friday, on a customer’s boat, but his electronics mal-functioned, and it was tough to find spots without the GPS working. I did manage to get us right on the 220 ledge, but the main thing there were goliaths, so there’re wasn’t much else to catch. We did get our lines broken a few times by a couple of those big boys.
Fishing Saturday morning with Pete Williams and friends, we had the other extreme in terms of wind. After all the wind and seas this week, Saturday was just the opposite--no wind, and no current. The bite was pretty slow, but we got three keeper Spanish mackerel, all around 25 inches, fishing with live shrimp and finger mullet, in 36 feet out of New Pass. We released small red grouper, triggerfish, mangrove snapper and yellowtail snapper.
It was a tough week for fishing around here. It’s supposed to be calm next week, so I am hoping to get more days out.
The photo shown at top right is of a 16 inch sheepshead, caught on a recent backwater trip in Estero Bay.
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