FishbusterCharters' Captain Dave Hanson reported, "Frequent customer, Mike Connealy, fished33 miles west of New Pass with me on Monday, 3/4. The winds had picked up overthe weekend, and we had some hefty swells heading out, along with some choppyseas for a while. The big porgies were biting, but the goliath grouper werecompeting with us for those, and they got the largest of them. Still, wemanaged to box seven nice porgies to 18 inches, and we released four smallerones. We added a keeper lane snapper to the box. We also released one shortyellowtail snapper and one red grouper short.

Fishing was really tough inEstero Bay Tuesday morning, 3/5, when I fished with Gary Hourselt and his son,Nick. The father-son team had fished the backwaters with me before, and haddone well with catching large sheepshead. They had planned to fish offshorethis time, but a weather front that resulted in small craft advisories nixedthat plan. So we headed into southern Estero Bay for a catch and release tripthat yielded little more than small sheepshead in wind and tide conditions thatwere far from ideal.

Wednesday's planned fishingtrip cancelled, in the face of high winds and seas offshore, poor tideconditions inshore, and 49 degrees for a morning temp! Thursday's offshore tripmet a similar fate, and it was Friday before I was back on the water.

Mike and Bethany Tank fishedoffshore with me on Friday, 3/8, the first day in a while that has been calmenough to head offshore. We still experienced some choppy seas at first, but itcalmed down nicely in the afternoon. Using shrimp, the couple fished 33 mileswest of New Pass, and had a productive day. They caught ten porgies, all 14inches to 18 inches, and three king mackerel, including two at 29 inches andone at 42 inches. We also got into some almaco jacks, catching and releasingfive of those to 25 inches, and we spotted a huge amberjack, about five footlong. We also released a half-dozen yellowtail snapper shorts."


1.) Young angler Dylan Latham with an 18-inch sheepshead, one ofmany keeper sheepshead he and his grandpa caught on shrimp in Estero Bay on arecent inshore Fishbuster Charter.




2.) Angler Mary Walter with a 17-inch pompano, one of two thissize she and her husband caught on shrimp in Estero Bay on a recent inshoreFishbuster Charter.