Tuesday, 12/29, the winds were blowing pretty hard, but the Rob Wessels family decided they’d brave the morning at the near-shore reefs, rather than fight a low tide fishing in the bay. We fished with live shrimp at May Reef, where we caught seven keeper sheepshead to 18 inches, two keeper mangrove snapper and a 15-inch pompano.

Wednesday morning, Sven and Corinne Peterson fished at the near-shore reefs with me. The wind was still blowing hard most of the morning and it was rough enough near-shore that we decided not to venture further offshore. We caught four keeper sheepshead to 16 inches, keeper mangrove snapper and a keeper triggerfish, all on shrimp. We released lots of bluefish, smaller sheepshead and grouper-shorts.

I closed out this year fishing in Estero Bay with long-time customer, Chester Yanik, his son and daughter-in-law, Mark and Aimee, and their two children, Jasmine, age ten, and Adam, age nine. We used live shrimp to catch about twenty sheepshead, including a couple of keepers to 15 inches. We also caught a keeper mangrove snapper, and we released the smaller sheepshead, a trout and a stingray.

New Year’s Day brought heavy rains in advance of a cold front, with temperatures plummeting by Saturday morning. I was off the water for the weekend, as were most folks.”