Fishing Report - Naples, Ft. Myers, Bonita Beach & Estero Bay

Lanes, mangs, sheepshead, cobia: Bonita Beach, SW FL The photo shown at right is of a 50 pound goliath grouper, caught on a recent offshore trip. We didn’t get much of a reprieve from rough weather, as another front kicked up the winds and seas again by Monday. The whole week was pretty much cancelled out for offshore, until Friday, when I fished in 30 feet out of New Pass. Even then, with seas of 2-3 feet predicted, we had lots of four-footers, and it was pretty sloppy out there. We caught keeper sheepshead, along with a bunch of throw-backs, as well as keeper mangrove and lane snapper. We also caught a mess of grunts, triggerfish and porkfish, and released gag grouper to 20 inches, and a 28 inch cobia, using live shrimp. Saturday, I fished about 15 miles out of New Pass. We caught nine keeper lane snapper, keeper mangrove snapper, porkfish, and again released gag shorts to 20 inches.