Monday brought cold temperatures and high seas. My anglers bundled up and we fished the bay, since the 8-12 foot seas expected through mid week will keep everyone close to shore. Bill and Nancy Stephens fished with me on an incoming tide in Estero Bay, along the channel toward Wiggins Pass. Using live shrimp, we caught a keeper sheepshead, five keeper mangrove snapper, and almost had a nice trout about 16 inches long, but it got away before it was boated. We released a short redfish along with some smaller sheepshead.
Tuesday and Wednesday both were extremely cold and small craft advisories remained in effect, preventing offshore trips. Although a few of my anglers would have braved the cold to fish bayside, low tides in Estero Bay made for less than ideal fishing conditions, and after advising them about those conditions, they opted to wait for a better time. Thursday, I sacrificed fishing in favor of turkey with my family, and I returned to a calmer Gulf on Friday, when I fished with Jim Holmes and his sons, Josh and Jeff. We had planned a full day offshore, but with the wind still pretty stiff, decided that conditions might still be too rough in the Gulf, so we opted to fish Estero Bay until the tide died, and got the best part of the day in, fishing oyster bars and holes up toward Wiggins Pass. We caught a keeper redfish at 20 inches, and released two shorter ones, a keeper 14 inch mangrove snapper, and a keeper 14 inch sheepshead. We released a lot of small sheepshead.
Saturday, Bill & Terry Major, their son Bill and his wife Antoinette fished Estero Bay with me on a windy morning with a low tide. Despite less than ideal conditions, the group had a lot of fun and a lot of bites on live shrimp. We caught two keeper sheepshead, 14-15 inches, and a keeper mangrove snapper. We released lots of smaller sheepshead.
The photo shown is of angler Tina Fandrich, with a 21 inch redfish, caught on a recent backwater trip in Estero Bay.
