july weekly review

week of 7/26-7/27
Had a bit of cruddy weather for offshore this week.... strong winds out of the west/ southwest made things pretty bumpy... Cancelled trips tuesday and weds as we had young kids going (ages 3-9) and with confirmed seas of 3-5 ft and really windy, they just wouldnt have a good time...
Forecast was supposed to lay down for thursday, and no storms on the radar, so we continued plans for our 5 hr trip to get out and fish... Weather man lied... It was still blowing pretty stiff out of the west/SW. None the less we pushed on out in the solid 3-4s and the cat made the ride pretty comfy (albeit a little slower at 23 mph). The great part was the boat drifts amazing and the same from 2 footers to about 6 footers, and the fishing was on fire. We set up in about 65-70 ft of water and the snapper were chewing hard. Every bait down got hit about immediately and the quality of the snapper was pretty impressive for the depth range.  We had one lane over 18", and several in the 17 inch range.  A few good sized porgies joined in on the fun.  After filleting the fish, we had a gallon size ziplock bulging at the seams plus another bag with porgy.. Great 1/2 day!

Friday launched from Punta Rassa boat ramp on another 1/2 day trip.  The weather man got it right today, with almost no wind and only some residual stuff left over from the past few days. It was extremely smooth... We set up in the 60-70 ft range.  The bite was pretty consistent, with lots of lanes in the 10-13 inch range. a couple porgies were caught, along with a few small grouper up to 19" or so.  It was blazing hot! not a trace of wind and moving from spot to spot felt like air conditioning. The group wanted to try for something big after putting together a respectable showing of snapper and porgies in the fish box, so we moved on in to an artificial wreck to see what we could stir up.  We set our anchor and dropped down a big chunk of bonita. Water quality was kinda cruddy with some pollen like algae on the surface. Amazes me how close other boats will get to you when your anchored...  Had another boat drift so close to me and on top of my anchor line,  I had to ask if he brought sandwiches for us too? Makes me remember why I try to avoid the published public wrecks and reefs.  We got one good wack that unfortunately got back into the structure.  The group opted to call it a day early as the heat was becoming unbearable for them. 
As we got within a mile or so of the Sanibel lighthouse, you could see a string of dead pilchards, pinfish, catfish, etc floating in the dark brown color change. Hoping they get this crap figured out sooner than later.   ​