Canadians Jason Booker, Bill Dawson, Brett Carpenter and Matt Richard, in town for the roller hockey tournament, fished with me Tuesday, 7/17, twenty miles out of New Pass. We caught and released lots of red grouper to 19 inches, gag grouper to 21 inches, and yellowtail that were just under keeper size on live shrimp. After a while, the guys decided to warm up their muscles in preparation for their tournament this weekend by wrestling with a few goliath groupers so we moved to one of my goliath spots and released five of those, ranging from 40 to 80 pounds, using blue runners for bait.
Terry Hopkins and grandson, Will, fished with me at the artificial reefs off Bonita Beach on Wednesday. We caught a dozen keeper mangrove snapper, a few nice triggerfish, and Spanish mackerel. We released three small goliath grouper to 7 pounds, all on live shrimp.
Saturday morning, I headed out with Ryan and Natalie Vanhorn and friends Danny and Missy for what we hoped would be a full day of fishing. Unfortunately, Mother Nature had other ideas. We started fishing in 37 feet out of New Pass with live shrimp, and we immediately started catching snapper. The bite was still hot when we left that spot at about 10:30, but the thunderheads were growing more threatening, so we decided to move closer to shore, around the reefs. By that time, we had caught thirteen keeper mangrove snapper and released keeper-sized Spanish mackerel, a short mutton snapper, cravalle jacks and smaller mangs. We never got to fish at the reefs because the weather conditions worsened—we could actually hear static in the fishing poles and boat antenna, and I had no choice but to head for shore. We made it in just before the sky let loose and the lightening began, and I managed to get their fish cleaned so they'd have plenty for dinner. Next time, we're hoping for a longer time offshore and perhaps some hogfish, the group‘s favorite.
The photo shown is of a goliath grouper hooked and released by angler Eric Harper on a recent offshore trip.
