Last Sunday, the Marc Pumford party fished 8 miles off Naples with us. We caught keeper triggerfish, porkfish, grunts & snapper, on live shrimp. We also caught lots of gag grouper shorts, which we either released, or were eaten beside the boat by a barracuda that stalked us a good bit of the time. We fished Monday with the Royals and the Smiths, 9 miles off Naples in 4-5 foot seas that had been predicted at 1-2 feet. Despite the rough seas, the group did well with keeper grunts, triggerfish & mangrove snapper. We released lots of blue runners and grouper shorts. The Royals and Smiths fished central Estero Bay with us, around New Pass, on Tuesday. We caught some small snapper, and Dan landed a 21½ inch redfish. We fished the bay again Wednesday with Tom Odom and Elizabeth Montgomery. We caught and released small redfish, snook, snapper, and jack cravalle.
Heavy surf advisories and wind gusts of 35 mph kept us in port Thursday and Friday. The Gregg Bedell party fished with us Saturday at the 240 Ledge, where we caught seven mangrove snapper to 15 inches and fifteen lane snapper to 12 inches. There were still some 4 foot seas out New Pass in the morning, but seas decreased to about 2 feet later in the day. We noticed a large area of discolored water (greenish-brown) right off the beach. We also got to see a 10 foot hammerhead shark, cruising toward Sanibel.
Fishing Sunday with the Bill La Marra party, including 7 year old grandson, Connor, we caught 3 limits of keeper mangrove snapper to 14 inches, Keeper Spanish mackerel, grunts, and released grouper shorts, in 35 feet off Naples. Find complete info and fish photo album at www.fishbustercharters.com
