A weather-front came through on Monday, 12/1, brought some rain, and left us with high winds and very rough seas. So Tuesday, Erwin and Millie Matusiak traded their offshore fishing plans for some backwater fishing in Estero Bay. We fished the shoreline with live shrimp and, while trying to stay sheltered from the cold north wind, we managed to catch seven keeper mangrove snapper and five nice sheepshead, the largest of which was 18 ½ inches. We also released a 16 inch redfish and a 20 inch snook.

Wednesday morning, I fished a catch-and-release trip, along the edges of Estero Bay with David Hellberg and son, Matt. We had steady action all morning and released twenty-five sheepshead to 15 inches and twenty-five mangrove snapper, ten of which were keeper-size. We also released two 20 inch snook.

I spent the rest of this week offshore, where the bite was hot!That report and pic can be found on the offshore forum.

The photo shown below is of angler Scott Kempfert with an 18 inch sheepshead, caught on a live shrimp on a recent inshore Fishbuster Charter.