With seas of 3-5 feet on Monday accompanying a cold front and continuing into mid-week, I stayed in port. Thursday was even worse, with both rain and wind, so it was Friday before I headed out again. I fished with Eric & Tricia Walters and Mike and Bobbie Paquette, Tricia’s parents. We headed out in a dense fog and stayed that way for a good part of the day. It took some extra time to get to our destination, get our bearings and anchor up. But we had good success about 17 miles west of New Pass. We caught four keeper gag grouper, the 22 inch one on shrimp, and then a 25 inch, 26 inch and 27 inch on squirrelfish and blue runners. We lost a huge gag, probably about 25 pounds, when he twisted, rolled over the leader, and jerked the hook. We also caught thirteen keeper mangrove snapper, all about 13 inches and a keeper lane snapper on shrimp. We released porkfish and whitebone porgies and dozens of 15 and 16 inch bluefish.
Fishing with me in Estero Bay Saturday, from Barefoot Beach to Wiggins Pass, Tom Einson, Chris Scutt and Dave Baines used live shrimp to catch a good variety of fish. We caught a keeper trout, two keeper sheepshead, a keeper mangrove snapper and a keeper whiting. We released smaller trout and ladyfish.
The photo shown is of angler Phillip Troutmann with a 23.5 inch gag grouper, both caught on shrimp on recent offshore trips.
