• South West Florida Fishing Report

    Fishbuster Charters
    (239) 947-1688 http://fishbustercharters.com/Index.html fishbuster@comcast.net
  • Captain Dave Hanson is a native of southwest Florida. He has been fishing local waters since childhood, and has been fishing professionally for over fifteen years. He is Coast Guard licensed, and is a member in good standing of the Bonita Springs Chamber of Commerce. He has been quoted and featured in several national fishing magazines, and he also appears weekly in the fishing reports sections of the local paper.

  • South West Florida Fishing Report

    Fishbuster Charters’ Captain Dave Hanson reported,"Monday morning, 3/10, I fished the backwaters along the channel toward Wiggins Pass with Mike and Sue Frantz and their grandson, Tyler. The group caught nine sheepshead to 15 inches. Sue also hooked a pinfish that was huge—13 inches—we had to get a pic of that one!



    Tuesday morning, 3/11, I headed offshore 18 to 20 miles with the Latham family—Linda, her son John and his wife Shannon, and their two children, Ian and Elle. Ian also brought along a friend, Clifford Roepke. Elle got the biggest catch of the day—a 30-inch king mackerel. John landed a nice hogfish at 14 ½ inches, and the group collectively caught five nice porgies and a mess of grunts, all on live shrimp. They released smaller porgies, along with fifteen red grouper shorts to 19 ½ inches, just below keeper-size. A few lines got cut, probably by additional large kingfish.



    Seas started to pick up on Wednesday, 3/12,and Brian and Marcia Wilson decided they’d rather fish the backwaters that morning, so we loaded up with live shrimp and fished in a few locations in central Estero Bay. The Wilsons caught three redfish at 24 ½ inches, 21 inches and 18 inches. We released the smallest of those, which was right at the 18-inch mark (my theory is if in doubt, release!) The couple also caught a keeper pompano at 14 inches, and two nice black drum at 17 ½ and 19 inches.

    Thursday, 3/13, winds were strong and seas were rough, with small craft advisories in effect. The only safe place to fish was in the backwaters. I returned to the spots in Estero Bay that had been so active just the day before but, as I had suspected and advised my customers, the strong northwest winds had sucked much of the water out of the bay, and conditions were somewhat muddy. We made the best of it, and brothers, Charles and Jesse Sheppard had a good time catching and releasing a black drum that was just short of keeper-size, a redfish just short of keeper-size, and four short sheepshead. One of the guys lost a big red, after getting a little too enthusiastic about pulling it in. But we had fun, and did pretty well, given conditions.

    Friday morning, 3/14, winds and seas were predicted to be much calmer that they had been on Thursday, but one look out the front door Friday morning proved those predictions false. There was no way it was going to be comfortable offshore, so Jim McGrath and Bill Crockett, who fish with me several times each winter, took my suggestion to fish inshore. We fished with live shrimp along the groups of islands in front of Little Carlos Pass, and did pretty well. Jim got a nice, 19-inch black drum, and the guys also caught six keeper sheepshead ranging 13 to 15 inches. They released ladyfish and a couple of sail-cats.

    Peder Engebretson and Dan Facendin fished offshore with me Saturday morning, 3/15. Seas were still a little rough heading out 18 miles from New Pass, but they calmed down later in the day. The guys caught some nice sheepshead—eight of those to 18 inches including four right at 18 inches. They also caught a 14-inch keeper mangrove snapper, a 13-inch whitebone porgy, a 20-inch Spanish mackerel, and a half-dozen large grunts. They released red grouper shorts to 17 inches, along with some smaller porgies.
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