Monday, 8/6, I fished the reefs off New Pass in 28 feet with Roger Meier and his children, Phillip, Vanessa and Melanie. We caught nine keeper mangrove snapper to 12 inches, kept four of a dozen Spanish mackerel to 24 inches, and released snapper and small gag grouper.
I fished with Marty and Dana Williams, who drove down from Siesta Key to fish with me. We headed out to about 70 feet out of New Pass and fished a couple of wrecks. On live shrimp, we caught a limit of yellowtail to 15 inches, two limits of mangrove snapper to 14 inches, and about 50 lane snapper to 12 inches, of which we kept a dozen. We released short gag and red grouper. When we had all the eatin' fish on ice, we decided to play with the goliaths, baited with cravalle jacks. We released two goliaths, one estimated at about 250 pounds and one that must have been close to 400 pounds, with a length of 6 1/2 feet and a 70 inch girth. Marty and Dana had a ball, but they will be hurtin' tomorrow!
Thursday morning, I fished in 30-45 feet out of New Pass with Shelley Gottlieb, son Kevin, daughter Jessica, and teenaged friends Lucas Peters, Amanda Peters and Brennen Yahl. We caught six yellowtail snapper to 15 inches, ten mangrove snapper to 14 inches, seven l keeper lane snapper, Spanish mackerels to 25 inches, grunts and porgies—All were caught on live shrimp.
Kevin Port and son Jake, along with friend Dave Defibaugh and son Joey, fished with me Friday. We started out in about 45 feet out of New Pass, and had some decent action on shrimp there until the porpoise showed up. We pulled anchor and headed south a bit and re-anchored in about 35 feet, which put us right on a hot snapper bite. We caught twenty keeper mangrove snapper, seven lane snapper, and one 15 inch hogfish. We released lots of smaller snapper and eight red grouper that were all 18 to 19 inches, just short of keeper size.
Saturday morning, I fished in 37 feet out of New Pass with Jim Madson, son Nick, daughter Stacy and Nick’s friend, Isaac. We fished over live bottom with shrimp and caught six hogfish, three of which were keepers, fifteen keeper mangrove snapper, lots of whitebone porgies all around 14 inches, and two Spanish mackerel at 24 inches and 25 inches. We released a twenty pound goliath grouper.
The photo shown is of angler Jerri Consolo with a pair of hogfish caught on live shrimp on a recent offshore trip.
Those are the best tasting fish ever, in my opinion--I'd rather eat those than grouper. They are not real easy to catch and not very abundant, but I usually get 10-20 of them a year, I'd say. it is pretty unusual to catch six at one time like we did yesterday though:woohoo:
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