SUBJECT: SW FL-Bonita Beach: 27 inch gag best catch this week

Submitted by Captain Dave Hanson (69.136.16.112) from FLORIDA on

Henry Froese and son, Bradley, from Ontario had planned to fish with me on Monday, but the weather front that passed through at the beginning of the week put a stop on those plans, due to seas of 7-12 feet offshore. We rescheduled for Friday. Friday morning, it rained early but passed through quickly, and once it did we headed out. We had hoped to play with a few goliaths to give Bradley the thrill of feeling a big fish on the line, but we never got the chance. After releasing some triggerfish, gag grouper shorts, grunts and Spanish mackerel, the sloppy seas started to get to my anglers’ stomachs, and we decided to head for shore a little sooner than planned.

Saturday morning, I headed offshore to areas around the reefs in 35 feet out of New Pass with Kevin Dineen and seventeen-year-old son, Troy. Kevin caught a nice 27 inch gag grouper and we were broken off by three more, fishing with light tackle. They weren’t biting heavy tackle at all. We had a live grunt on heavy tackle just a few feet away from where Kevin caught the 27 inch gag, but nothing hit it and we had 4 bites on the light rig. We released lots of gag shorts to 20 inches, along with Spanish mackerel to 28 inches, triggerfish and grunts. We also caught and kept nine mangrove snapper all around 13 inches. We had a goliath grouper that was about 300 pounds eat one of our gag grouper right at the water’s surface boat-side, which was a pretty exciting sight. After that, the goliaths surrounded us and attempted to eat everything we pulled in, so we picked up anchor.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL!