Tuesday, 3/4/14, was a beautiful, calm day
offshore. I spent it fishing with frequent customers, Ron Musick and
Eddie Alfonso, and this time, Ron’s brother, Stanley Musick was in town
to go with us. We headed out about 29 miles from New Pass, and had
steady action all day. The red grouper bite was hot, and we caught more
than fifty of those, but they were shorts to 19 inches, and had to be
released. But a 44-inch king mackerel made our day, along with
twenty-five keeper whitebone porgies to 16 inches.
Wednesday, 3/5, I fished along the channel toward Wiggins Pass, in the
backwaters, with Roy Mittman, Bill Geronomo, and friend, Mike. The guys
used live shrimp to catch five keeper-sheepshead to 15 inches and two
keeper-mangrove snapper. The released smaller sheeps and mangs.
David Bloomfield and Dave Price fished with me in the central part of
Hickory Bay Thursday morning, 3/6, just ahead of some threatening
weather predicted to hit the area by about 3PM. I could tell those
thunderstorms would be here sooner than predicted, but I figured we
could get the morning in, which we did. Thunder began rolling right
about noon, and we headed in. By that time, the guys had boxed a 21-inch
redfish and a 15-inch mangrove snapper, caught on live shrimp. We never
got a single sheepshead, which was strange, but a 15-inch mangrove was
also kind of strange for the bay—those bigger mangs are usually
offshore.
The front that dumped so much rain on us Thursday left windy conditions
behind for Friday morning, 3/7, when I fished the backwaters near the
channel by Wiggins Pass with Robin Latham and his brother-in-law, Pete.
Fishing was tough that morning, but the guys caught two keeper
sheepshead to 14 inches, and released a half dozen smaller ones. They
also caught and released two big stingray to ten pounds.
Sunday, 3/9, I fished with a delightful family—the Baums—who were
celebrating a graduation. Darlys, her daughter, Becky and son-in-law,
Joel, and her grandsons, Mason, Brady and Luke (the graduate) fished
with me in spots between 18 and 23 miles west of New Pass. Grandpa Jerry
stayed behind, as we already had a maximum of six passengers. He gets a
special shout-out for being the official chauffeur, and for helping
with a computer issue my wife had that was preventing her from updating
our website with the pics of the nice catches from the day’s trip. It
was a calm day offshore, and the group did very well using live shrimp.
They caught seventeen keeper lane snapper to 14 inches and seven keeper
mangrove snapper to 16 inches. They added a 14-inch hogfish to the box,
along with a 24-inch red grouper, a brace of 20-inch Spanish mackerel, a
couple of whitebone porgies and a few grunts. Luke also battled and
caught a 30-inch gag grouper, which had to be released due to closed
season; nonetheless it was only right that the angler-of-honor caught
the biggest fish! We released a dozen smaller mangrove snapper, about
fifty red grouper shorts, and six porkfish shorts.
Monday morning, 3/10, I fished the backwaters along the channel toward
Wiggins Pass with Mike and Sue Frantz and their grandson, Tyler. The
group caught nine sheepshead to 15 inches. Sue also hooked a pinfish
that was huge—13 inches—we had to get a pic of that one!
Tuesday morning, 3/11, I headed offshore 18 to 20 miles with the Latham
family—Linda, her son John and his wife Shannon, and their two children,
Ian and Elle. Ian also brought along a friend, Clifford Roepke. Elle
got the biggest catch of the day—a 30-inch king mackerel. John landed a
nice hogfish at 14 ½ inches, and the group collectively caught five nice
porgies and a mess of grunts, all on live shrimp. They released smaller
porgies, along with fifteen red grouper shorts to 19 ½ inches, just
below keeper-size. A few lines got cut, probably by additional large
kingfish.
Seas started to pick up on Wednesday, 3/12,and Brian and Marcia Wilson
decided they’d rather fish the backwaters that morning, so we loaded up
with live shrimp and fished in a few locations in central Estero Bay.
The Wilsons caught three redfish at 24 ½ inches, 21 inches and 18
inches. We released the smallest of those, which was right at the
18-inch mark (my theory is if in doubt, release!) The couple also caught
a keeper pompano at 14 inches, and two nice black drum at 17 ½ and 19
inches.
Thursday, 3/13, winds were strong and seas were rough, with small craft
advisories in effect. The only safe place to fish was in the backwaters.
I returned to the spots in Estero Bay that had been so active just the
day before but, as I had suspected and advised my customers, the strong
northwest winds had sucked much of the water out of the bay, and
conditions were somewhat muddy. We made the best of it, and brothers,
Charles and Jesse Sheppard had a good time catching and releasing a
black drum that was just short of keeper-size, a redfish just short of
keeper-size, and four short sheepshead. One of the guys lost a big red,
after getting a little too enthusiastic about pulling it in. But we had
fun, and did pretty well, given conditions.
Friday morning, 3/14, winds and seas were predicted to be much calmer
that they had been on Thursday, but one look out the front door Friday
morning proved those predictions false. There was no way it was going to
be comfortable offshore, so Jim McGrath and Bill Crockett, who fish
with me several times each winter, took my suggestion to fish inshore.
We fished with live shrimp along the groups of islands in front of
Little Carlos Pass, and did pretty well. Jim got a nice, 19-inch black
drum, and the guys also caught six keeper sheepshead ranging 13 to 15
inches. They released ladyfish and a couple of sail-cats.
Peder Engebretson and Dan Facendin fished offshore with me Saturday
morning, 3/15. Seas were still a little rough heading out 18 miles from
New Pass, but they calmed down later in the day. The guys caught some
nice sheepshead—eight of those to 18 inches including four right at 18
inches. They also caught a 14-inch keeper mangrove snapper, a 13-inch
whitebone porgy, a 20-inch Spanish mackerel, and a half-dozen large
grunts. They released red grouper shorts to 17 inches, along with some
smaller porgies.
St. Patty's Day, Monday, 3/17, the leprechauns delivered some nasty
weather. With winds and seas up to small craft advisory levels, and with
probable rain on the way, I had to cancel my planned offshore trip and
remain in port.
The photo shown below is of angler Eddie Alfonso, with a 44-inch king mackerel, caught on shrimp on a recent offshore trip.
You can check out all of our shark and goliath grouper action videos at the link below.
http://fishbustercharters.com/fishing videos.htm
