Fishbuster Charters' Captain Dave Hanson reported, "High winds and seas and cold temps converged upon us the week of 1/20, and I had to cancel a couple of offshore trips. The winds and the cold even made it a little tough fishing Estero Bay’s backwaters, which I did on Wednesday, 1/22, with Tim Gustin and his son, Chase. But we had an incoming tide, which helped, and the guys used live shrimp to catch four keeper sheepshead, two at 13 inches and two that were between 15 and 16 inches. They released two redfish shorts to 18 inches and two small snook.


Seas finally calmed down enough by Friday to allow me to go offshore, where I fished in spots 28 to 35 miles west of New Pass with Tony Mengwasser and Mark Harrington. Using cut-bait and squid, the guys released twenty-five red grouper shorts to 19 inches, fourteen scamp grouper, all in the 14 to 15-inch range, two bluefish, two yellowtail snapper shorts and one mangrove snapper short. Keepers included a dozen lane snapper, a 13-inch mangrove snapper, and three porgies.


Winds and seas were on the rise again by Saturday morning, 1/25. I fished inshore, at the south end of Estero Bay, with Jim Pizzo and his daughter, Maria. They used live shrimp to catch thirteen sheepshead, including two keepers at 13 inches and 14 inches. The eleven shorts they released were mostly just under legal keeper size. They hooked a couple of redfish, but lost those before they could get them to the boat. Maria also caught and released a 20-inch snook."





1.) Angler Jack Nichols with a 21-inch redfish, caught on shrimp and released (due to current harvesting moratorium) in southern Estero Bay on a recent inshore Fishbuster Charter.




2.) Angler Teresa Schmidt with a 16-inch keeper triggerfish, caught on squid, 19 miles west of New Pass on a recent offshore Fishbuster Charter.