Estero Bay Report

Anglers best bet this past week was the nearshore reefs. Trolling these rock piles produced good numbers of spanish mackerel up to 28 inches. Silver spoons seemed to work best. There were also plenty of birds which helped locate the small bait pods where they mac's were hanging out. Moving into shallow water just outside the passes produced plenty of ladyfish, whiting, and silver trout. Dragging shrimp tipped jig heads was the go-to method. The water in the passes is still dirty so the snook bite was finicky but they would take free lined pinfish on 3/0 circle hooks thrown under the floating docks on strong tides. Anglers looking for redfish with these pins had the best luck weighing them down under the docks along the bottom. There is still plenty of snapper feeding along the mangrove islands and oyster bars and shrimp tipped jig heads worked fine.