Fishbuster Charters’ Captain Dave Hanson reported,"Monday, 4/28, I fished a full day offshore with Bob Donelson, Kent McCarthy, Chuck Babcock, and Skip Hamilton. The guys wanted to go after big, catch-and-release fish, so we headed out to spots between 28 and 36 miles from New Pass. We released four goliath grouper, each angler getting a chance to wrestle one of those, which were all between 40 and 100 pounds, and bit blue runners. We also wrestled with a big shark for a while, but it had bitten on one of the smaller rods, and eventually broke the line before we identified its type. The guys also released three 27-inch king mackerel, five yellowtail snapper to 13 inches, and whitebone porgies, along with a dozen red grouper shorts.

Tuesday, 4/29, I fished the last trip of Ron Musick’s season here for this year. He and Eddie Alfonso headed out twenty miles from New Pass with me to fish for grouper and snapper. Ron caught a keeper red grouper at 23 inches, and we released a bunch of red grouper shorts. With gag grouper out of season, we shed a few tears as we released a 23 inch gag and a few more tears when we released a 31-inch gag! But they were still fun to catch. We also released a hogfish that was just short of keeper-size. We added to the fish box ten yellowtail snappers to 15 inches, some whitebone porgies and grunts. We caught everything on shrimp, except for the gag grouper, which bit pinfish.



Winds picked up a lot Tuesday evening into Wednesday, 4/30. I fished inshore Wednesday morning with Bob and Jo-Ellen Exby on a catch-and-release trip that yielded ten stingray, five mangrove snapper to 11 inches and an18-inch snook, all caught on shrimp and released.

Thursday morning, 5/1, frequent customer, Scott Saveraid, and friends, Brian Bettini, Tim Chen, and Ron Wesler, hoped to have fun battling some big fish. We set out for goliath grouper catch-and-release fun, but the two-foot seas NOAA had predicted were actually four-to-five foot seas, mostly fives, with a steady 25 mph wind, and all the goliath spots we could access, which had recently supplied fun battles for several recent customers, yielded no goliath bites at all. All was not lost though, since a rig baited with a blue runner and crevalle jack, intended for a goliath grouper, brought us a nine-foot tiger shark, which Brian battled for 45 minutes before getting it to the surface and releasing it. It ran 1/8 mile north, then ended up ¼ mile past where we hooked it, and gave Brian a real run for his money--We captured that event on video! The guys also released a 28-inch cobia, a dozen blue runners, a couple of crevalle jacks, and four mangrove snapper shorts.

Friday, 5/2, winds were still howling, and the seas we encountered Thursday were bound to be every bit as rough on Friday. I informed my scheduled offshore trip that it would be rough offshore, and suggested we fish inshore instead. But the guys had their hearts set on fishing the gulf, and decided to defer their trip to another time.
Saturday, 5/3, there were still rough seas and lots of wind, along with lots of moisture over the gulf, as this weather system that wreaked havoc in northern Florida earlier in the week stalled over our area, thankfully in a weakened state. I advised Terry Mooney, daughter Beth, and Beth’s boyfriend, Lou Burgess, that our best bet would be to fish the morning in the backwaters. The trip caught a keeper sheepshead at 13 ½ inches and four keeper mangrove snapper that were all 11 inches. They released a half-dozen mangrove snapper shorts and three stingrays, and had lines cut twice by something we didn’t get to see. We were fishing in wind-sheltered areas, mostly around the little islands inside New Pass."