Tuesday morning, 7/31, brought some threatening skies, but the rain looked like it was fairly light on radar and was making its way south from Cape Coral. Lou Dellorco and family decided to give it a go at the near-shore reefs. We did pretty well before we were run in by rain. By 10:30 AM, winds picked up, seas got rough, and the rain was upon us. But by that time we had boated a dozen mangrove snapper to 12 inches, Spanish mackerel to 20 inches and triggerfish to 15 inches, so it was a pretty productive morning.
The rain cancelled my planned full-day fishing excursion on Wednesday, but Thursday was a better day. I fished a catch-and-release trip in Estero Bay around New Pass on an outgoing tide with Andy Alvarez and his ten-year-old daughter, Danielle. We released three redfish at 26 inches (see photo), 23 inches and 22 inches, along with three snook to 18 inches and mangrove snapper to 12 inches, all on shrimp.
Fishing was slow at the reefs on Friday when I fished with Graham Connor. We caught some keeper mangrove snapper and released two small goliath grouper and some ladyfish. Pinfish were all over the place out there. We were broken off in the rocks twice by something we never got to see.
