keeper gags, lanes, mangs, mutton, flounder: Bonita Beach,FL

[fishbuster]

I fished Monday, 19 out of New Pass, with live bait. We caught a keeper gag grouper at 23 inches, and released lots of gags in the 18-19 inch range. We caught a limit off nice sized mangrove snapper to 18 inches, two keeper lane snapper, a 16 inch mutton snapper, and porgies. We had some arm-straining excitement too, as we were broken off twice by goliath grouper, and also fought a shark (couldn’t tell if it was a lemon or a bull) for about 35 minutes. The shark ate one of the fish we were reeling in, and was as long as my boat is wide, which would make him 8 or 9 feet.

Tuesday, I fished in 47 feet off New Pass. We caught seven mangrove snapper, a keeper yellowtail snapper, two good sized whitebone porgies, and released about fifty gag and red grouper shorts, fishing with live shrimp and cut-bait. We fished again out that way Wednesday. It was very calm, and the bite was slow about 30 miles west of New Pass, where we caught some keeper lane snapper. We moved in a few miles closer to shore, and caught more keeper lanes. We released a nurse shark. We lost two big grouper that wouldn’t bite on heavy tackle, preferring to break us off on our light tackle rigs!

I fished Thursday at the reefs off Bonita, with live shrimp. We caught a 24 inch gag grouper, two flounder 14 inches and 16 inches, lane snapper, Spanish mackerel, triggerfish and grunts.

What a difference a day makes—Friday, I headed about 19 miles out of New Pass, expecting to have 2-3 foot seas, but it was very rough out there, in advance of our weekend cold-front. We had to fish a good while before we hooked up on anything, but we ended up catching some decent mangrove snapper and large porgies, and we released grouper shorts to 19 inches.