I fished in 40 feet out of New Pass Tuesday. We caught a 28 inch gag grouper, which was the first keeper grouper I have seen in a while that close in. We also released lots of gag shorts, and caught mangrove snapper to 14 inches, using live shrimp.
Fishing Wednesday, just 5.8 miles off the beach, out of New Pass, we caught a 29 pound, 51 inch king mackerel (see photo)--only the second one I have gotten this winter, and the first one in about 6 weeks. He was a battle on 12 lb. test! We also got keeper sheepshead, grunts and porkfish, and released gag shorts...but the kingfish took the limelight!
On Thursday, I returned to the same areas I fished Wednesday, hoping to find more kingfish. But, there was nothing of any worthy size out there at all. We released lots of sheepshead, grunts, and triggerfish, and had fun fishing, but there just wasn’t a lot to brag about this time.
Steve Gagyola, Dave Devaux, and brothers Tracy and Rob Bruttomesso fished in Estero Bay with me on Friday. We used live shrimp, in some holes along the channel toward new Pass. We caught a 21 inch trout, a 19 inch pompano, eight sheepshead to 15 inches, a keeper mangrove snapper, and two crevalle jacks.
Saturday, I returned to my Estero Bay holes with Andy Ungar, Tony Pastore, Jim Sistak, and Jim Sistak, Jr. We caught seven keeper sheepshead, four keeper pompano, and a 16 inch trout, on shrimp.
