Fishbuster Charters’ Captain Dave Hanson reported,"Monday morning, 4/14, I fished a catch-and-release trip about 12 miles west of New Pass with Carol Harris, her daughter and son-in-law, Lisa and Jeff, and their teen-aged sons, Bradley and Alex. The group used live shrimp to catch four Spanish mackerel to 22 inches, six ladyfish to 20 inches, twenty red grouper to 19 7/8 inches, twenty-five lane snapper, six mangrove snapper shorts and two dozen grunts.


Tuesday and Wednesday, 4/15 and 4/16, were both extremely windy days, with seas rough offshore and small-craft advisories issued. Both of my scheduled trips were for offshore fishing, and both had to be cancelled.
Thursday, 4/17, it was still pretty sloppy in the gulf early on, but it calmed down nicely. I headed out twelve miles from New Pass with Mile Lorenz and friend, Brian, for a little big-game action, followed by a few food-fish for the cooler. The guys caught and released two goliath grouper, both about 80 pounds. I could see that they had been caught before on lighter line and broken off, because one of them had three hooks in its mouth and the other had two. I did them both a favor and removed the hooks from them before releasing them, and I am guessing they are much more comfortable now! Both of those bit bait-fish. The guys used live shrimp to catch everything else, which included ten red grouper shorts to 19 7/8 inches, just short of keeper size, fifteen keeper lane snapper, a brace of 20-inch Spanish mackerel, seven grunts all 12 to 13 inches, and eight bluefish, all around 14 inches. We released the red grouper shorts and bluefish, and boxed the lanes, mackerel, and grunts.


We spotted the big white underbelly of some kind of shark while we were out there, and one of the guys thought he spotted a sailfish fin, which would have been unusual and only the second time ever one of those was spotted from my boat.


Weather was a little iffy again on Friday morning, 4/18, when I headed offshore with Brody Thompson and friends, Al and John. We only got out about 12 miles from New Pass, with seas of three-to-four feet that close in. By the time we left our fishing hole, it was getting rougher, a wave breaking over the bow just before we pulled anchor to head in. But the fishing was good, and the guys caught twenty-four keeper lane snapper and a mess of grunts, a 22-inch Spanish mackerel, and the catch-of-the-day: A nice, 38-inch king mackerel. They released fifteen red grouper shorts.




Clement Wong and family fished lower Hickory Bay with me Saturday morning, 4/19. They had planned to fish for grouper offshore, but seas were four-to six feet, so we settled on fishing inshore. The group caught a 19-inch black drum, a 14-inch keeper sheepshead and an 11-inch keeper mangrove snapper. They released smaller sheepshead, five stingrays, a couple of sail-cats, and a 19-inch snook, all caught on live shrimp."