After a long time off the water, nearly a month, due to our very slow slow-season, along with a couple weeks of consistent rains, I finally got out fishing again on Monday, September 12th. I fished with live shrimp in central Estero Bay with long-time customers Steve Spitzer and Jalissa Reever. We caught three redfish, including one keeper at 19 ½ inches, and two we released at 17 ½ and 16 inches. We also caught seven sheepshead, including one 14-inch keeper, and thirteen mangrove snapper, including three 11-inch keepers. We also released a 25-pound stingray and two 6-pound gaftop sailcats.
Monday, 9/19, I fished offshore with Brian Taylor and Ryan Sullivan. The guys wanted to experience some goliath grouper fighting before we went after table-fare. So, we put a couple blue runners and and a Spanish mackerel out there for the goliaths. We caught and released one that was 75 pounds, and we battled another one that was probably close to 500 pounds for a long time before he broke the line. After that adventure, we started baiting with live shrimp to catch and release fourteen red grouper to 18 inches. We also caught four keeper yellowtail snapper, a keeper lane snapper, five nice mangrove snapper to 17 ½ inches, two Spanish mackerel measuring 23 inches each, and seven nice whitebone porgies to 21 inches. We released a dozen smaller porgies and a bunch of smaller mangrove snapper, along with a barracuda that was over four feet long, a 38-inch sharpnose shark, and a nine-pound bonito.
Wednesday, 9/21, I fished Estero Bay with Al & Gloria Schroedel and friends, Mary Lou and Roger. We used live shrimp to catch three keeper mangrove snapper, and we released seven smaller mangs, a couple of sheepshead just under keeper size, a 17-inch redfish, and a 39-inch bonnethead shark.
Robert & Monica Kreiling and friend, Tim Collins, wanted to catch some big fish Saturday morning, 9/24. We started out catching bait-fish, such as ladyfish and small lane snapper, so we could fish for goliath grouper. We caught and released four goliaths, which got progressively bigger, beginning with a 60-pounder, then an 80-pounder, a 250-pounder and the biggest at about 500 pounds. We shot some video and took some pics, and released all, without harm to the fish, though the same cannot be said for our arms!
The photo shown is of angler, Matt Haylock, with a 40-inch bonnethead shark, caught on shrimp and released on a recent offshore trip.
Check out our new goliath grouper action videos:
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