• 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,"Keith Scharm and family hoped to fish offshore Monday, 3/24, in advance of some nasty weather that was predicted to come through the area later in the day. The weather forecasters had all concurred that we might see “a few, scattered, light sprinkles” early in the day, followed by some heavier rains in the late afternoon, evening, and over-night hours. As it turned out, that consensus was dead wrong. It rained on us for nearly the entire morning, and the predicted 2-foot seas were actually 4-foot seas, until we headed in around 1PM. It was still raining then, but winds, which had been howling 15-to-25 knots all morning had calmed, and seas were calming as well. Needless to say these were not ideal conditions for comfort nor for catching. But the family toughed it out 18 miles offshore, and caught a few porgies and grunts, along with a keeper sheepshead, all on live shrimp. They released red grouper shorts and triggerfish shorts, along with blue runners. We used one of the blue runners for goliath bait, and had an approximate 200-pound goliath grouper on the line for a while before he broke off, so the anglers got to feel what catching a big guy like that feels like.

    Tuesday, 3/25, there was yet more rain over the gulf, along with strengthening winds and rising seas. I cancelled my planned offshore trip, and remained in port. Likewise for Wednesday, with small craft advisories and seas of five-to-seven feet offshore.

    Thursday morning, 3/27, I fished with Stuart Norris, who has fished with me each March for many years. Usually, we fish offshore, but with three-to-five foot seas persisting through today, we changed plans and fished the backwaters in the area of Little Carlos. Stuart caught a 16-inch sheepshead and a 17-inch black drum. He released two redfish to 17 inches, a few short sheepshead and one mangrove snapper short, all caught on live shrimp.

    Friday morning, 3/28, Jim Novy and his four young children, Jacqueline, Julie, Jordan and Jimmy, who have fished with me each spring break for several years, were hoping for a calm day offshore, but that wasn’t going to happen, with small craft advisories still in effect offshore. We opted for near-shore, and headed to the reefs but, even there, six miles off the beach, seas were pretty choppy. We ended up fishing most of the morning in more sheltered waters, behind Fish Tale Marina. The group caught three keeper sheepshead to 14 ˝ inches, and released a few smaller ones, along with a few stingrays and sail-cats.



    Saturday morning, 3/29, long-time customer Rusty Hook and his sons, Charlie and Jeremy, had originally hoped to fish offshore. But with rain and rough seas in the early morning hours and more predicted for afternoon, the gulf was not a viable option. Our choices were to fish the bay on a revised schedule to miss the rain Saturday, or defer our trip until Sunday, when predictions were for 30 mph gusts, and the tide was not to be as favorable in the backwaters. We opted to wait out the early rains, depart at 10AM Saturday, and fish until about 2PM, returning to land before the afternoon rain storms hit. That plan worked well and, though it was very windy, we did pretty well fishing in lower Hickory Bay, using live shrimp. The guys caught two keeper redfish at 18 ˝ inches and 21 inches, and released four redfish shorts, along with a 17-inch crevalle jack. Charlie also caught a 16-inch sheepshead."

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