Greg and Terry Carns and their sons Mike, twelve, and Danny, nine, were scheduled to fish with me on Monday, but Monday morning brought thunderstorms and severe weather. Fortunately, we were able to reschedule for Tuesday. We fished in 18-26 feet at the Bonita reefs with live shrimp. Seas were pretty calm, at one to two feet, but it was a bit sloppy due to the storms we have been having. Mike's stomach wasn't feeling too good, and finally persuaded him to allow himself to be sick. Once he did so, he said he "never knew throwing up could make you feel so good"! I told him he actually helped chum the fish to the boat, so from then on, his nickname was "Chum-bucket", and he had a good time for the rest of the morning. We kept ten mangrove snapper to 12 inches and released a whole bunch more that were keeper size. We also released Spanish mackerel, cravalle jacks, and three spotted trout.
Mark Gallardo and young sons Jordon and Mark, Jr. fished with me on Thursday in 26 feet at the reefs off Bonita with live shrimp. We caught three Spanish mackerel to 25 inches, a dozen keeper mangrove and lane snapper, and a fourteen inch flounder.
Saturday, Mike Lee and son, Nick, headed out to about 32 feet with me with a bait well full of shrimp. We had a nice snapper bite, and caught three limits of mangs to 12 inches. We kept three of about twenty keeper-sized Spanish mackerel that we caught free-lining shrimp behind the boat. We released small goliath grouper to 20 pounds and cravalle jacks to 3 pounds.
The photo shown is of anglers Paul Cherubino and Bob Leeks with a trio of redfish, 20-21 inches, caught on shrimp on a recent inshore trip Estero Bay.
