• South West Florida Fishing Report - FL

    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 - FL

    Fishbuster Charters' Captain Dave Hanson reported, "As a windy weather front approached the area on Monday, 1/5/15, small craft advisories were issued, and my anglers, Allen Jacobs, Phil Corey, and friend, Lenny traded their offshore plans for a morning of fishing in central Estero Bay. Using live shrimp, the guys caught a half dozen nice sheepshead to 18 inches. The reds were biting too, but all five redfish that the guys caught were short of keeper size, at about 17 inches, so we released those.

    Fishing in various spots ranging from 18 miles to 29 miles west of New Pass with anglers Ron Musick, Eddie Alfonso, Dick Arnett, Tom Collins, and Jim Mix Tuesday 1/6/15, proved productive for table-fare catches, all of which bit on live shrimp. The guys boxed a brace of keeper red grouper at 21 inches, eight keeper lane snapper, ten porgies to 15 inches, and a half-dozen 12-inch grunts. They released lots of red grouper shorts, and a few mangrove snapper shorts.

    Wednesday and Thursday, 1/7 and 1/8, brought winds and high seas, with the second weather front in a week arriving. Bay conditions were shallow and muddy and far from ideal, and I remained in port. Friday morning, 1/9, the bay was still shallow, and seas were slightly calmer offshore, though still a little sloppy. Chris Baumgartner, his dad, Larry, and Chris’ daughter Madeline decided they would rather deal with some sloppy conditions offshore than fish in the mud inshore, so we headed out 18 miles from New Pass, with a bait cooler of shrimp. The trio caught thirty nice porgies to 16 inches, kept about half of those, and released the rest. They also caught and released two gag grouper, one at 19 inches and the other at 22 inches, along with a dozen red grouper shorts. They added to the fish box two keeper mangrove snapper at 13 inches and 15 inches. A shark bit off a couple of the groups’ catches, but we never got to see what kind of shark it was."

    Angler Bradley Miller with a 25 1/2-inch gag grouper, one of two nice gags, caught on shrimp and released, 18 miles west of New Pass on a recent offshore Fishbuster Charter.



    Angler Julie Clark with an 29-inch redfish, caught on shrimp and released (slot size is 18-27 inches) along the east wall of Estero Bay on a recent inshore Fishbuster Charter.

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