• 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, "Weather canceled out four consecutive trips, with various combinations of high winds and seas, rain, and low tides. I finally got out fishing again on Tuesday, 3/13, when I fished the backwaters of southern Estero Bay with Tom Schilli, his wife, and their two grandsons Steven and Sonny Barclay. The family used live shrimp to catch and release a dozen sheepshead to 12 inches, four black drum to 14 inches, six mangrove snapper shorts, and a 14-inch sand bream.


    Mike Jansen, his son-in-law, Matt Menting, and Matt’s seven-year-old daughter, Lily, fished in Estero Bay with me on Wednesday morning, 3/14, using live shrimp. We had a great morning o sheepshead catching, boxing thirteen keeper sheepshead to 19 inches and releasing a dozen more consisting of shorts and some keepers that weren’t needed. The family also boxed a 17-inch trout, and they released a 17-inch snook, along with a dozen short mangrove snapper.


    Mike Jenson and Matt Menting fished with me again on Thursday, 3/15, this time joined by Mike’s son, Chris Jenson, to fish offshore. Seas were choppy early on, but we all knew they would be and we were prepared for the three-to-four foot seas we encountered heading out to 19 miles west of New Pass. Seas calmed down later in the morning, as predicted. The guys used squid and cut-bait to loan up on lane snapper, boxing twenty keepers to 14 inches. They added to the box a 14-inch mangrove snapper, a nice 17-inch mutton snapper, a 14-inch porgy, and a 13-inch grunt. We had to be quick to boat the mutton snapper, since an 8-foot hammerhead shark was in pursuit of it, but we got the mutton safely into the boat. The guys also released five yellowtail shorts, along with a 9-foot sandbar shark.


    Ian McKinnon, his son-in-law, Remi Nickel, and Remi’s three young sons, Mark, Luke, and Jack fished 19 miles west of New Pass with me on Friday, 3/16. The kids had fun catching a mess of grunts to 12 inches, and releasing blue runners and short red grouper. But the highlight of the trip was when we caught the hammerhead that I had seen lurking in the area the previous day—he bit on a blue runner on a heavy rig, and we were able to get some good video before releasing him.


    St. Patrick’s Day Saturday, I fished from 19 to 23 miles offshore with Darren and Linda Rachman and their friends, Craig and Heather Laudenslager. The group used cut-bait and squid to box twenty grunts to 14 inches, a half-dozen lane snapper to 14 inches, a 15-inch porkfish, and a 13-inch porgy. They released twenty-five red grouper shorts."

    1.) Angler Mike McCarthy with a near-20-inch red grouper, caught on cut-bait and released 24 miles west of New Pass on a recent offshore Fishbuster Charter.



    2.) Angler Kristen McCarthy with 17-inch-inch trout, caught on shrimp in southern Estero Bay on a recent inshore Fishbuster Charter.

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