Fishbuster Charters' Captain Dave Hanson reported, "Larry Jack, who usually fishes with me a couple days each summer, was joined by friend, Ernie Morrison on Monday morning, 7/13, when we fished the east wall of Estero Bay. I netted a bunch of whitebaits on the way out, and we caught everything on those. The guys caught two limits of keeper mangrove snapper to 12 inches. They released two crevalle jacks, each about two pounds, along with a redfish short. They both got a chance to catch and release the same big snook—first it bit Ernie’s bait, ran with that, then bit Larry’s bait, and both hooks in its mouth! It was a fun battle for both guys, over slot at 39 inches, and out of season anyway. Larry and Ernie will fish offshore with me on Tuesday.

Larry and Ernie had planned to fish offshore with me on Tuesday, but with scattered storms across the gulf, they decided to do another morning in the backwaters. They used shrimp and whitebaits to fish lower Hickory Bay, where they caught a keeper mangrove snapper, released a few short mangs, and caught two redfish to 18 ½ inches.

Wednesday morning, 7/15, Dennis Blais and friends fished offshore with me. NOAA had predicted two-foot seas, but there were a lot of storms over the gulf, kicking up seas and making for pretty rough conditions. We managed to get out only about seven miles, and came in just a bit early, due to rain. But the group brought home a mess of keeper mangrove snapper to 15 inches and grunts, which bit live shrimp. They released five red grouper shorts.

After a night of heavy thunderstorms, Thursday morning, 7/16, the rains quit in our area around 8AM, and I headed out shortly afterwards to fish Estero Bay’s backwaters with Mark and Pam Solloway and their two sons, Jared and Shane. The family used live shrimp to catch ten keeper mangrove snapper to 11 inches."

1.) Angler J. Weigle with an 25-inch redfish, caught on shrimp in Estero Bay on a recent inshore Fishbuster Charter.


2.) Angler Carol Lee with a 35-inch sharpnose shark, caught on shrimp and released 20 miles west of New Pass on a recent offshore Fishbuster Charter.