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BONITA BEACH
By, Fishbuster Dave, 11/18/08

I fished with Brad Hayes and his six-year-old son, Cameron in central Estero Bay, using live shrimp. We caught seven redfish, one of which was a keeper, and four sheepshead, including one keeper. We released the smaller reds and sheepshead, along with some small snapper and two snook to 24 inches.

Friday morning, I fished with Peder and Linda Engebretson and their friends, Dan and Lynn. We headed out of New Pass to about 40 feet, where we used live shrimp to catch two keeper yellowtail snapper at 14 inches each, two 14 inch keeper mangrove snapper, five large whitebone porgies and three large triggerfish, all about 14 inches. We released a half dozen small amber jacks to 18 inches, an 8 pound goliath grouper, two 23 inch kingfish and lots of red and gag grouper shorts.

The gulf was so flat Saturday morning it was hard to believe that seas were forecast to build to six to ten feet by Sunday, with the approach of a cold front. I fished in 40 feet out of New Pass with Thomas and Laura Sylvester. We used live shrimp to catch a 37 inch keeper king mackerel, one of three kings we caught, a 19 inch mutton snapper, keeper mangrove snapper and whitebone porgies. We released gag and red grouper shorts. >>Forum Thread & More Photos

RED AND SNOOK
By, islestyle, 11/10/08

Kyle and I went to the East end of the island last night in search of a keeper snook. We cast netted some good sized mojara and greenies and put some lines in the water. We had a few quick runs early on but they all dropped the bait. A few schools of bait followed by some black drum moved through when the tide picked up. But the bite was very erratic all night long. I had my light rod in hand and felt a slight tug. I tightened the line and set the hook hard, prompting the fish to take off like a rocket. About five minutes and five good runs later, I landed this big boy.

I got him on a small chunk of ladyfish. Hell of a fight on my new Diawa Tierra /6'6'' ML Loomis combo. I didn't measure or weigh her. I just wanted to get it back in the water as quick as possible. I'd say she was around 38'' and 18lbs. The wind picked up quite a bit and the bite turned off. We had a couple more good runs but called it a night at around 9:30. I'm sure we would land more fish with heavier tackle, but it's just too much fun using the light tackle. >>Forum Thread & More Photos

KAYAK GROUPER
By, Tarvus, 11/6/08

Low tide at Bunche Beach was at 1:09pm today. I was in my kayak and on the water a mere ten minutes after dead low tide. I really like to fish an incoming tide and often the early part seems to generate the best bite. I often catch short gag and red grouper off Bunche Beach and I've been reading reports of the grouper bite heating up inshore, so I decided to give it a try. I had a hunch I'd get into some grouper today!

I hadn't fished Bunche in quite a while. I was pleasantly surprised to see the water was quite clean. They must have stopped dumping Lake Okeechobee water down the Caloosahatchee River because it looks like all that tannin stained fresh water has been flushed out. I could see bottom down to about six feet today. It also seemed like the water had warmed up quite a bit from the cold water we had last week.

I paddled straight off the beach and threw a white Rapala X-rap out behind me on the port side and a silver Yo-Zuri Crystal Minnow out behind on the starboard side. I hadn't paddled a hundred yards when something banged the Yo-Zuri hard! It turned out my hunch about the grouper was correct! It was a spunky little gag grouper that got the skunk out of the kayak today! In about five to six feet of water, I turned the kayak parallel to the beach heading in the general direction of the Sanibel Causeway. Within another hundred yards of paddling, the X-rap got hammered and I had my hands full with this short but pretty red grouper!

The last grouper managed to tangle my line with the other pole and it took me a while untangling things. (I finally resorted to the sharp knife technique!) By the time I had stuff straightened out and re-tied, I had drifted into shallower water - maybe three feet or so. I got my stuff casted out again, took about four paddle strokes and hooked a HUGE ladyfish that fought like it was on steroids! Needless to say, it managed a leaping long distance self release. But within seconds, I had another one on!

At this point, I turned around to paddle back towards Bowditch Point. Before long, I was back in the trout again! In fact, I had a serious double hookup going on and at the same time Flipper showed up looking for a free lunch! I left one rod in the holder and fought what proved to be the biggest trout of the day! A big ole fat, yellow mouthed, snake-fanged looking dude! He was briefly in the kayak but flopped around, unhooked himself, flopped out and fed himself to Flipper who was circling and snorting the whole time this double hookup was going on! Undaunted, I grabbed the other rod and reeled in a respectable and fat trout, got him unhooked, and wondered how I was going to release him safely and keep him from being Flipper's desert! In a flash of inspiration, I grabbed the small ladyfish off the kayak deck, tossed it about 10 feet in front of Flipper, and eased the trout back into the water while Flipper was feasting on part of my erstwhile redfish bait! (I know, you ain't s'posed to feed dolphins, but I wasn't feeding him really - I was trying to save a gamefish and sacrificing the ladyfish seemed to benefit the greater good.)

The dolphin circled me and followed me quite a while. Naturally, I caught nothing while he was around. Eventually he got bored and headed off to greener pastures. When he did, the grouper bite picked back up again with another red grouper... By this time, I was on the Bowditch Point side of Bunche Beach paddling towards shore. I had about decided to call it a day and head in. I started reeling in the rod with the Yo-Zuri and WHAM!!! ZZZzzzzZZZZ!!!!! The biggest gag of the day clobbered it about ten feet behind the kayak! I got the grips on him after a nice little fight. The fish measured a good eighteen inches!

Falling victim to the "just one more fish" syndrome, I once again turned parallel to the beach and paddled back in the other direction. I got the last fish in about four feet of water directly opposite where I had parked my van at Bunche Beach. It was a feisty jack that made me think he was bigger than he really turned out to be! I had the kayak loaded and was ready to head for home by 3:30pm. All in all a most enjoyable way to spend two hours! And I have one big ladyfish left for redfish bait tomorrow!. >>Forum Thread & More Photos

LEMON BAY
By, Trootin, 10/27/08

Got out both days this weekend with my good friend Joey. Started out Saturday throwing spooks picking up a good mix of reds/snook/trout. Stayed around there and moved in with the water and fished a set of potholes, and whacked the slot reds, put around 20 or so in the boat using gulps/exudes. Once that bite was done we ran offshore to see what was going on. Spanish were everywhere, throwing small bucktails we landed around 30. While fishing for the spanish I spotted a brown object swimming behind the boat. A decent cobe had come up to check the boat out, Joe pitched it a little jig and after a little convincing the fish took it, and we put it on ice Joes first cobe ever

After that we called it a day. Sunday with the whippin north winds, I knew there was going to be much water all day so we took a run up north to mess with some reds. Working potholes/mullet we caught somewhere in the double digits of big reds and a few trout on gulps/exudes fished slow. >>Forum Thread & More Photos