A Few More Hogs & Sheep: SW FL Fishbuster Dave

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[cool][font "Arial"][size 2]We fished Wednesday with the Leonard White party, using shrimp over live bottom on a rock strip ½ mile east of Wiggins’ Reef. "We caught two hogfish at 15 inches and 16 inches, a 17 inch sheepshead, along with lots of 12-13 inch sheepshead that we chose to release, ten keeper-sized mangrove snapper, porkfish, and a bucket full of grunts. We released grouper shorts, but bigger shorts this time, with gags to 21 inches. Thursday was the calmest day offshore in many weeks—a little too calm. The lack of current, wind and wave action made fishing tough with the Tom Petruzelli party on Thursday. We caught loads of grunts, some sheepshead, snapper, and porkfish. The tide was slow all morning. The water temperature was 56.8 degrees until we found a slightly warmer spot at 57.1 degrees, which provided us the best action of the day, fishing about 10 miles off Bonita Beach. It was still smooth, with a slow tide Friday, but conditions were slightly more favorable. We fished with John Purvis, Dan Gardner, and Dan’s 4-year old grandson, Blake. We caught keeper sheepshead, and Blake was proud to say he caught the biggest one at 17 inches (with a bit of help from the Captain!) He was a bit reluctant to have his catch filleted, but after we photographed it so he could show his mom, he consented! We released small snapper and grouper, all caught at the Bonita reefs. Harry Auch, Dan & Ben fished with us Sunday, eight miles off Bonita Beach in 32 feet. We caught and released lots of sheepshead, got two limits of keeper mangrove snapper to 14 inches, a 15 inch hogfish, grunts, and triggerfish.[/size][/font]

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