Goliaths & Lane Snapper: Bonita Beach, SW FL

[fishbuster]

I fished Monday in 30 feet out of New Pass. We used live shrimp to catch a 23 inch keeper gag grouper, a couple of lane snapper to 15 inches, a 23 inch Spanish mackerel, good-sized porkfish, triggerfish and grunts—25 fish in all. We used a blue runner as bait to catch and released a 50 pound goliath grouper—Those are always fun on 12 pound test!

Friday, I fished 12 miles out of New Pass. We used live shrimp to catch keeper sheepshead and snapper, porkfish, grunts, and a small 4 pound goliath grouper (released). We saw lots of bonito feeding on glass minnows, but couldn’t get close enough to catch one. We switched to blue runners to catch and release two bigger goliaths, one about 80 pounds, and the other over 200 pounds.

The photo shown is of a 60 pound goliath grouper, caught on a blue runner, and released on an offshore trip last week.