Fishbuster Charters' Captain Dave Hanson reported, "Jeff Holzman, Pete Hartwig, and Peter Sorenson fished a catch-and-release trip in southern Estero Bay’s backwaters with me on Tuesday morning, 1/26. They used live shrimp to catch and release a 19-inch bluefish, an 18-inch crevalle jack, and eight sheepshead.

Long-time friend, Mike Conneally, fished 36 miles west of New Pass with me on Wednesday, 1/27. We used squid to catch a 13-inch keeper lane snapper, four mangrove snapper, including two 13-inch keepers, a dozen keeper porgies, and eight good-sized grunts. We released a triggerfish short, an 18-inch banded rudder fish, and twenty undersized red grouper to 19 ½ inches.

Rick Thibault and his cousin, Brandon Benning, fished the backwaters of southern Estero Bay, using live shrimp, on Friday, 1/29. They caught and released a 22-inch redfish and a 19-inch seatrout, along with three sheepshead shorts. They boxed two keeper sheepshead at 13 inches and 16 inches.

On Saturday morning, 1/30, old friends John and Holly Lischer and their son, Cruz, fished 19 miles offshore with me, using squid for bait. Though seas were predicted to be calm, they were about three foot, with whitecaps early on. For some reason, the snapper in my favorite snapper holes were not cooperating, and we caught only a mess of grunts, and boxed twenty o the thirty we caught. We also released four red grouper shorts.