Monday, 2/2/15, brought a cold front, right on the heels of a previous front. It was raining by early in the day, and winds and seas kicked up to small craft advisory levels—not a happy way to begin a new month of fishing!

Tuesday, 2/3, brought an even more blustery day, with seas of 4-6 feet offshore, which canceled out my planned offshore trip for that day.

Wednesday morning, 2/4 Randy Peterson and his friend, Al, had an inshore trip scheduled with me. Tides are super low right now, but we planned on a later departure to get the best of a bad tide. Still, fishing was tough in lower Hickory Bay, where the guys used live shrimp to catch and release two sheepshead shorts, two mangrove snapper shorts, and a stingray.

Angler Hib Doe with an 18-inch hogfish, caught on shrimp, 22 miles west of New Pass on a recent offshore Fishbuster Charter.



Angler Nick Visnich with a 19-inch sheepshead, caught on shrimp in Estero Bay on a recent inshore Fishbuster Charter.





Winds and seas were relentless all week, and Thursday also brought rain and thunderstorms. I cancelled both my Thursday and Friday offshore trips, due to rough and miserable conditions. Bay fishing was also compromised by dead low tides, the north wind adding to the shallowness there.

By Saturday, 2/7, winds were somewhat calmer. Seas were a little sloppy, but had subsided to two-to-three feet. I headed 18 to 22 miles offshore to fish with long-time customer, Leonard White, who was accompanied by his son, Steve, his teen grandson, Colin, and two family friends, Henry and John. Colin got the catch-of-the-day, a keeper red grouper at 22 inches, which bit a pinfish. The group released twenty red grouper shorts to 19 inches, caught on shrimp. They boxed a few good-sized grunts, a couple of porgies, a 13-inch sheepshead, and a keeper lane snapper, also caught on shrimp."