NOAA has spoken and there will be no more fishing this weekend, so I might as well post the report for this week. Monday, 3/3, the winds were starting to kick up the seas again ahead of the next cold front so I fished near-shore with Rellan Monson, his wife and a friend. We caught seven nice sheepshead to 20 inches and had another one of those now frequent encounters with a monster-sized goliath grouper that ate one of the big sheepshead we had hooked. We also caught four Spanish mackerel to 23 inches and released lots of gag grouper shorts.

Tuesday, there were small craft advisories issued, with gusty winds and seas building to six to eight feet. I cancelled my fishing trip that day and i fished inside on Wednesday (details posted in the inshore forum.).

Thursday, skeptical about the calmer seas predicted offshore, Ed & Margie Bock and I decided to fish bayside. Details are posted in the inshore forum.

The big blow arrived overnight Thursday and with wind gusts of 35 mph and seas of 7-10 feet in the forecast, it wasn’t a good day for fishing anywhere. I cancelled my trips and will be spending the weekend on land.

The photo shown is of a goliath grouper, over six foot, released by angler Brian Distefano, caught when it bit a large sheepshead Brian was reeling in on a recent offshore trip.