Wednesday, 10/17, I fished Estero Bay, from Wiggins Pass to Barefoot Beach, with Rick Szymanski, Joe Donisi and Al Orpenzo. We used shrimp and shiners to catch and release ten snook to 20 inches, several redfish to 16 ½ inches, cravalle jacks and small snapper. We also caught a keeper mangrove snapper and four keeper sheepshead, all around 13 inches.
Thursday, I got well offshore for the first time in awhile, fishing with brothers Matt and Mike Malinak and friend, Kevin Collen. We fished in 68 feet about 28 miles out of New Pass. We had great conditions, but I noticed a large amount of red tide on top of the water from about 8 miles offshore to about 21 miles. There weren’t a lot of dead fish around, but the southwest wind was pushing the red tide right into shore. We got out past it, where the water was pristine, but there wasn’t an abundance of fish. We did well, though, on shrimp with a keeper red grouper at 21 inches (see photo), a pair of 24 inch Spanish mackerel, a 14 inch triggerfish and five yellowtail snapper all about 13 inches. We also had fun with a 150 pound goliath grouper that bit a grunt and blue runner that were hooked together. We released the goliath, along with a 3 foot sharp-nose shark, lots of short red grouper to 16 inches and short yellowtail.
