I fished offshore with long-time customers Kari Vilamaa, George Dyer, and Paul Kikendall. We were one day ahead of a cold front that was predicted to bring strong winds and seas of six to eight feet offshore, but we had calm conditions all day, and we were able to fish in various spots ranging from 19 to 29 miles west of New Pass. The guys caught two keeper red grouper at 20 ½ inches and 21 ½ inches, and released a gag grouper that was just ½-inch short of keeper-size at 21 ½ inches, all of which bit pinfish. Fishing with live shrimp yielded a keeper hogfish at 14 inches, a brace of 13-inch yellowtail snapper, eighteen keeper lane snapper, a keeper mangrove snapper, and four Spanish mackerel to 25 inches. The group released porgy-shorts, along with two sharks, an 8-foot nurse shark and a 3-foot sharp-nose shark.


Angler Dave Carey with a 25-inch red grouper, caught on shrimp on a recent offshore Fishbuster Charter.



Angler Steve Wanner with a 16-inch triggerfish, large for a trigger, caught on shrimp on a recent offshore Fishbuster Charter.

My scheduled offshore trip for Wednesday had to be canceled, as the windy cool front passed through over-night on Tuesday, with gale-force winds in the area by Wednesday morning. Thursday was less windy than Wednesday was, but a persistent 20-25 knot wind blew for much of the day. The tide was dead low first thing in the morning, so I waited until mid-morning to take John and Toni Heimrich fishing in the backwaters—the gulf was still way too rough, so the bay was our only option. I tried my best to keep us sheltered from the wind in spots that held some fish. The couple did very well with drum and sheepshead, caught on live shrimp. They landed three keeper sheepshead, all nice size to 17 ½ inches. They also caught two keeper drum, one at 14 ½ inches and one really nice one at 24 inches. They released a few smaller sheepshead and drum, along with four stingrays.
Friday was another windy morning of backwater fishing. The tide was higher than it was the day before, but the fishing wasn't as productive. Pat O'Neill and friend, Rick, had initially hoped to fish offshore for grouper but, foiled by high winds rough seas, they fished in Estero Bay instead. They caught three keeper-sized sheepshead, released a crevalle jack and a stingray, and had their lines broken by redfish three times on an oyster bar."