Fishbuster Charters' Captain Dave Hanson reported, "Monday, 2/29, Mike McCarthy and Ken Hubbell fished with me 22 miles west of New Pass, using live shrimp. We had a good morning of fishing in warmer temps and calmer seas than have been the case in recent days. The guys boxed a 24-inch keeper red grouper, six nice keeper mangrove snapper to 17 inches, two sheepshead to 20 inches, and four porgies to 17 inches. They released five red grouper shorts, two gag grouper shorts, and a 26-inch bonito.



Tuesday, March 1st, I began the new month right, fishing with Ron Musick, Eddie Alfonso and Dick Arnett, in spots ranging from 18 to 35 miles west of New Pass. We caught a few blue runners and used them for grouper bait, which landed us three keeper red grouper, a 21 ½-inch, 22 ½ inch, and 24-inch. We used live shrimp for the rest of our catches, which included three keeper mangrove snapper to 14 inches, a keeper lane snapper, ten nice porgies, and a few grunts.

Wednesday, 3/2, was another calm morning offshore, which I spent fishing with George Sloan, Alan Ladd, and Ken Zurich, 22 miles west of New Pass. The guys used live shrimp to catch eight keeper mangrove snapper to 15 inches, three keeper sheepshead to 18 inches, and a half dozen large grunts. They released seven red grouper shorts, along with a 22-inch, out-of-season gag grouper.

Thursday, 3/3, winds picked up a bit over the dead calm we had seen the two previous days, and there was a pretty good roller offshore, where I fished 20 miles west of New Pass with long-time customer, Mike Conneally, his brother Paul, and Paul’s son, Connor. The guys used live shrimp to box ten porgies around 14 inches each, three sheepshead to 16 inches, a keeper mangrove snapper, and six grunts, of the twenty grunts they caught. Along with the surplus grunts, they released a couple of porkfish, two mangrove snapper shorts, a 17-inch gag grouper, and eight red grouper shorts to 19 ¾ inches.

Friday morning, 3/4, began with some widely scattered showers, which I managed to dodge as I rode out to 22 miles west of New Pass with Jim McGrath and Bill Crockett to fish for snapper. The guys used live shrimp to catch twenty keeper lane snapper, and also got a couple of nice sized porgies and grunts. They also caught five keeper sheepshead to 18 inches, added the two largest of those to the fish box, and released the other three. They released a 23-inch, out-of-season gag grouper, along with three red grouper shorts to 19 ½ inches.



Saturday morning, 3/5, winds had picked up and seas were about 3-foot when I headed 20 miles offshore with Marvin Colona and his friend, Rodney. As the morning progressed, the wind and seas calmed down, and the bite got better mid-morning than it was early on. The guys used live shrimp to catch a half dozen mangrove snapper keepers to 15 inches, twenty grunts, of which they boxed a dozen, six porgies, and four sheepshead keepers to 17 inches. They released a 21-inch gag grouper, along with ten red grouper shorts to 19 ½ inches."