SW FL-Bonita Beach:African pompano, mutton, lanes, mangs, Sp

[fishbuster]

I headed out about 65 miles with Gregg Bedell on his boat Monday, to fish the Stoney Point wreck. We used squid, sardines, and shiners, and it was a pretty exciting day out there. We caught a fifteen pound African pompano, a seven pound mutton snapper, and a two foot rainbow runner. We kept a dozen vermillion snapper, and six lane snapper, releasing numerous others. When the mutton snapper hit our bait, a big barracuda bit the mutton’s tail. I grabbed the landing net to capture the mutton, and in doing so, I hit the cuda, which let go of the snapper. A huge amberjack, about 4 foot long and about 60 pounds, swam straight into the net after the mutton. I wrestled with the amberjack, but he broke right through the bottom of the net, and swam off. Without the cudas there, it could have been an even more productive trip, but it was definitely fun and exciting. We ended up with about half of an African pompano, our portion weighing 6 pounds, and all but the tail of a mutton snapper, which weighed over 4 pounds (see photo).

Sue Tacktill and son, Jim Hovanec, would have been game for offshore fishing Wednesday, had it not been for the band of rain offshore that threatened us with lightening and stormy conditions. We opted for fishing Estero Bay, but red tide conditions made for tough fishing there also. I netted some shiners twice, but each time, they died immediately after being placed in the live well. We fished at various spots in the bay, including behind Ft. Myers Beach, where we saw lots of dead fish. We had fun anyway, and released small snook, mangrove snapper to 10 inches, black drum, and a stingray.

With rough, rainy weather offshore again on Thursday, Walt Abbott and son Matthew decided to fish the bay with me. We headed a different direction, away from where I encountered the lingering red tide the day before. It rained most of the morning, but without lightening and storm conditions, we were able to stay out. We spotted numerous tarpon, but they weren’t biting, so we ended up releasing small snook, and calling it a day.

Friday, I fished with Bob Rogers and Jeff Slavacorn, in 30-45 feet out of New Pass, with live shrimp and shiners. We were harassed by the dolphin, so we had to move around a bit, but we caught a nice variety of keeper mangrove snapper, lane snapper, triggerfish, and Spanish mackerel to 25 inches, and we released a 40 inch lemon shark and a 5 pound goliath grouper. We were broken off four times by some bigger fish, but never got to see what they were.

Kevin Ackerman and friends Joe and Jeff, fished with me Saturday in 30 feet out of New Pass. We used live shrimp to catch a dozen keeper Spanish mackerel and half a dozen keeper mangrove snapper. We released a 30 pound goliath grouper, small kingfish and triggerfish.