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

Lots of wind, then snapper at week's end: Bonita Beach, SW FL The photo shown at right is of a 23 inch gag grouper, caught last week on an offshore trip. Weather did not cooperate with the full week of fishing I had planned. After a very gusty weekend, seas did not calm down enough to get offshore again until Friday. I fished then, in 42 feet, about 18 miles out of New Pass. It was windy on shore, and we were expecting some rough seas, but we were out past the winds, and it was calm, and a little slow most of the morning. We didn’t hit rough water until we headed back in to shore. We used live shrimp to catch a dozen mangrove snapper to 14 inches and keeper lane snapper. We released keeper-sized sheepshead, triggerfish and grunts. Fishing Saturday, 34 miles out of New Pass, we caught two limits of mangrove snapper to 15 ¼ inches, keeper lane snapper, and one keeper vermillion snapper, along with some large grunts. We released gag grouper shorts.