Dave Hanson

Monday morning, 6/8, I fished Estero Bay with Steve Sepan, his son, Ron, and his young grandson, Logan. We used live shrimp to catch two keeper sheepshead to 15 inches and a keeper redfish at 18 1/2 inches. We released small mangrove snapper, trout and crevalle jacks.

Tuesday was a full day fishing trip with Florian Kordas and son, Mike, so we headed out a good ways to 73 feet, about 36 miles out of New Pass. We had a good day with lots of action and variety. We caught and kept ten nice mangrove snapper to 19 1/2 inches, three keeper yellowtail, all about 14 inches, and a few 15-inch whitebone porgies. We released Spanish mackerel to 26 inches, a ten-pound bonito, a 150 pound goliath grouper, mutton snapper shorts to 15 1/2 inches, undersized yellowtail and mangrove snapper, gag grouper shorts and red grouper shorts to 19 1/4 inches. We used shrimp for bait except for the goliath, which took a blue runner. It was a good day for both sport fish and table-fare.

Wednesday morning, I was back offshore, but only to about 20 miles and 43 feet, fishing with John Winters and Steve Pettitt. I tried my mutton snapper hole first, but a huge goliath grouper ate the first three fish we hooked--all pretty nice muttons--so we had to move because it is hard to compete with a 500 pound monster. We checked out some other spots and ended up with four Spanish mackerel, all 23-24 inches, four keeper yellowtail snapper, four keeper mangrove snapper, along with some grunts and whitebone porgies. We released undersized yellowtail, mangs, triggerfish, gags and red grouper.

That is it for this week—Slow season is upon us in SW FL. And near record heat is keeping even some locals indoors. We'll have more to report over the next couple of weeks.

The photo shown is of angler, John France, with a 19 inch mutton snapper, caught on shrimp, on a recent offshore trip.

Fish Species: bonito, mackerel, snapper, triggerfish, redfish, sheepshead, goliath grouper
Bait Used: live shrimp and blue runners
Tackle Used: light to heavy spinning
Method Used: bottom fishing and tree lines-oyster bars bayside
Water Depth: 30-70 ft. offshore; 1-4 feet inshore
Water Temperature: 86
Wind Direction: S, SW
Wind Speed: 10 knots
19 inch mutton snapper
19 inch mutton snapper


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Dave Hanson

About The Author: Captain Dave Hanson

Company: Fish Buster Charters

Area Reporting: Bonita Beach

Bio: Captain Dave Hanson is a native of southwest Florida. He has been fishing local waters since childhood, and has been fishing professionally for over fifteen years. He is Coast Guard licensed, and is a member in good standing of the Bonita Springs Chamber of Commerce. He has been featured in several national fishing magazines, and he also appears weekly in the fishing reports sections of the Bonita, Ft. Myers, Ft. Myers Beach, and Naples, FL newspapers.

239-947-1688
Click Here For Past Fishing Reports by Captain Dave Hanson