Wednesday, I fished with the George Reiff party. We headed out New Pass about 22 miles. There were thunderstorms predicted about 27 miles out, but we saw spotty ones as close as ten miles out. As we headed out, there was a big storm over Sanibel and a big one to the south. We got through a clearing right between the two storms, looked behind us, and saw three small water spouts dropping from the sky. We saw one of those make it down to froth the water. We caught nineteen lane snapper before the rain started building around us. We saw four more water spouts to the south, and the rains offshore were moving in on us, so we headed in about 11:30 AM, and were lucky enough to stay dry.
The Jose Garcia party fished Thursday with me, 23 miles out New Pass in 57 feet. We had to keep an eye on the storms again, but managed to get a good part of the day to fish. We caught thirty-two lane snapper to 12 inches and seven mangrove snapper to 14 inches, using live shrimp.
Friday, Tom VonFelt, daughter Emily, and friend Natalie fished the reefs off Bonita Beach with me. We caught a 27 inch gag grouper, which bit a small blue runner. We also caught six nice mangrove snapper and four good sized triggerfish, on live shrimp.
Sunday, Pat Fitzgerald and his two sons, with friend Brian and his son, headed to MAY Reef with me. They wanted the young boys, ages 7-11 to catch fish, and they immediately started catching snapper and jack cravalle, including 3 keeper-sized mangrove snapper. But the seas were pretty rough, and in 18 feet of water, it was rough enough to cause some seasickness, so we headed in a bit early. There was a dark cloud overhead anyway, and we got in just before the rain began.
