Roger Meir and fifteen year old son, Phillip, from Switzerland, fished with me Monday at the reefs off Bonita Beach. We used live shrimp to catch Spanish mackerel to 26 inches, along with keeper mangrove and lane snapper.
Tuesday, in 36 feet out of New Pass with John, Matthew and Timmy Duritsh, Ryan Gabbard, and Ben Smalley, we caught a nice variety of fish, including twenty keeper mangrove snapper to 14 inches, two keeper yellowtail snapper, two hogfish, Spanish mackerel, and a 10 pound little tunny.
I returned to the reefs Wednesday, on a catch-and-release trip with Pat Fitzgerald and his two young sons, Jimmy and Tommy. Using live shrimp, we caught keeper-sized mangrove snapper, lane snapper (some nice ones to 14 inches), Spanish mackerel, triggerfish, porkfish, filefish, and pompano. We released all those, along with a five pound goliath grouper, red grouper shorts, ladyfish, and small yellowtail snapper.
Thursday, Greg Bedell and I ventured out 40 miles northwest from New Pass, stocked with live shrimp, squid, and crabs for bait. We caught three permit on crabs, and released the smallest of the three, in compliance with bag limits. We kept the 26 pounder (photo shown), and the 24 pounder, and released the 15 pound permit. We also got a 28 pound, 49 inch cobia. We saw a half dozen more cobia, and had a big one almost spool us, before it broke off. We also caught keeper lane snapper and mangrove snapper on shrimp and squid—all in all, a very productive day offshore.
I ran the wrecks on a catch-and-release trip with Jim Pike Friday. We spotted a couple schools of permit, and had one hooked for a bit, but he scrubbed the wreck and broke the line. We released a 4 foot lemon shark and keeper-sized mangrove snapper, fishing with live shrimp and crabs.
