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Fishing Report - Naples, Ft. Myers, Bonita Beach & Estero Bay
Capt. Dave Hanson
April 30, 2005
Fort Myers - Saltwater Fishing Report
Yellowtails, lanes, trout, redfish & lots of wind: Bonita Beach, SW FL Gulf & Bay Report
The 16 and 19 inch sheepshead shown in the photo above were caught on a recent offshore trip.
After the high winds Sunday, conditions were still sloppy Monday morning, so I ventured out of New Pass only about 10 miles. We caught a nice yellowtail snapper along with five mangrove snapper, all around 15 inches, on live shrimp.
Tuesday, I had planned to fish offshore, but with 4-5 foot seas and 25 knot winds, we headed back toward shore, and fished the bay at New Pass instead, where we caught three trout, a few Spanish mackerel, small sharks, lane snapper and jack cravalle.
After Wednesday’s rain and stormy conditions, I was inclined to fish the backwaters, despite NOAA’s forecast for 2-3 foot seas. But, my anglers wanted to try offshore fishing, so we headed to the nearby reefs. Even close in at the reefs, seas were 3-4 feet, with a stiff wind blowing. We caught three trout, seven Spanish mackerel, mangrove snapper and lane snapper, and released gag shorts, all on live shrimp.
Friday, with predictions again calling for 2-3 foot seas, I headed offshore, about 17 miles out of New Pass. Seas were ranging 3-5 feet, with a couple of 6 foot waves. We stuck it out for half the day, and caught lane snapper and porgies. We released what was probably a hundred pounds, collectively, of gag grouper to 21 inches and red grouper to 19 inches, so we had lots of action, but no keeper grouper. We caught most of those on pinfish, but used live shrimp for everything else. A couple of anglers were broken off by big grouper. About mid-day, the shark and dolphin showed up, which pretty well stopped our chances of catching anything more on that spot.
Fishing with live shrimp in the backwaters of Estero Bay Saturday was tough in muddy conditions, with a 25 knot wind blowing, but Grant saved the morning with a redfish measuring 26 ¾ inches. We also caught mangrove snapper.
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