Carrabelle 5/19 - Nearshore grouper and snapper
Posted: May 21st, 2018, 3:36 pm
Got invited over to fish with a friend of mine on his new to him boat. I've fished some off of Mexico beach in my bay boat but not been to Carrabelle.
Stayed at The Moorings and we ate at Boss Oyster Friday night, pretty darn good hunk of blackened redfish. He had some issues with brand new reels earlier Friday, drags would not hold tension, turned out to be the braid was slipping on the spool so we pulled it all off, added some mono and then re-loaded all 4 reels. Got to bed around 1:20 am, sure not the way we planned it.
Up at 5am, quick breakfast in the Moorings "café", drop off keys and pickup ice and out on the river. He had caught bait the evening before but we bought some more pinfish off a bait boat on the river and passed the FWC unloading at the ramp. It was a little breezy Saturday morning on the way out, he is still working on getting used to the boat and electronics so we headed to a public # and started fishing. He didn't want to anchor so he kept us over the spot and our wives and I dropped some pinfish down. I hauled up a 22" gag pretty quick and hated seeing that grouper sandwich go back over the side. Hauled up two keeper mangrove snapper and some more short gags while watching somebody next to us hauling in mangrove left and right.
Moved to a different spot and started pulling in red grouper all around the boat, then my buddy got slammed and then so did I, both with 3' - 4' sharks. Got them cut off and dropped again, 2 more sharks. We eventually moved as they just stayed with us, fun the first couple of times but preferred the reds.
Seas calmed significantly as the morning progressed. we ran out to the O tower as we had no grouper on board, my wife put one of those endangered red snapper over the side and then shed a few tears as it went back over too.
Ran back inside state water and started fishing again, reds there too but all short. Looking at his sonar looked like we got over some live bottom and we kept picking up some reds all just short of keepers. My wife suddenly started yelling and just looking at her rod I knew she had a bigger fish, she was struggling but got a 26" gag over the rail... yes! She said she was going to get some arm weight training done before ARS season.
His wife suddenly had a similar bent rod and he goes over to help, apparently she had hooked up a small attack sub as it was heading west and there was no stopping or turning it, meanwhile she got tangled up in another rod so my buddy lost about 2/3 of a spool of his brand new Power Pro before he could get it cut. A few seconds of Keystone Cops during that one. We assume it was a large shark.
Things slowed down and I suddenly caught the bottom of the ocean except I could move it some, played with it up and down for a bit before I apparently really upset it and it decided it wasn't going to stop and broke/cut me off, I assume that was a goliath but we never saw it.
Passed 2 FWC boats coming in on the river but no stops.
Loaded up and stopped at Angelo's for supper. Didn't stop at Crum's but looks like they have renovated and moved the gas pumps. Stopped at a brand new Marathon station/superstore back towards St Mark and they had non-ethanol gas at a lot of pumps from what I could see.
Young lady at The Moorings was very helpful, room was basic but clean, bed was comfortable. I'd skip the free breakfast and eat a honey bun/protein bar or bring a microwave biscuit next time just to get out quicker but would definitely stay there again.
After watching several boats pull up and deploy their iPilots to use the Spot Lock Anchor feature I think my buddy is sold on that concept.
First keeper or near keeper near shore grouper for my wife and I, we had fun and a couple of bags of fish and really full belly's so a good day all around.
Stayed at The Moorings and we ate at Boss Oyster Friday night, pretty darn good hunk of blackened redfish. He had some issues with brand new reels earlier Friday, drags would not hold tension, turned out to be the braid was slipping on the spool so we pulled it all off, added some mono and then re-loaded all 4 reels. Got to bed around 1:20 am, sure not the way we planned it.
Up at 5am, quick breakfast in the Moorings "café", drop off keys and pickup ice and out on the river. He had caught bait the evening before but we bought some more pinfish off a bait boat on the river and passed the FWC unloading at the ramp. It was a little breezy Saturday morning on the way out, he is still working on getting used to the boat and electronics so we headed to a public # and started fishing. He didn't want to anchor so he kept us over the spot and our wives and I dropped some pinfish down. I hauled up a 22" gag pretty quick and hated seeing that grouper sandwich go back over the side. Hauled up two keeper mangrove snapper and some more short gags while watching somebody next to us hauling in mangrove left and right.
Moved to a different spot and started pulling in red grouper all around the boat, then my buddy got slammed and then so did I, both with 3' - 4' sharks. Got them cut off and dropped again, 2 more sharks. We eventually moved as they just stayed with us, fun the first couple of times but preferred the reds.
Seas calmed significantly as the morning progressed. we ran out to the O tower as we had no grouper on board, my wife put one of those endangered red snapper over the side and then shed a few tears as it went back over too.
Ran back inside state water and started fishing again, reds there too but all short. Looking at his sonar looked like we got over some live bottom and we kept picking up some reds all just short of keepers. My wife suddenly started yelling and just looking at her rod I knew she had a bigger fish, she was struggling but got a 26" gag over the rail... yes! She said she was going to get some arm weight training done before ARS season.
His wife suddenly had a similar bent rod and he goes over to help, apparently she had hooked up a small attack sub as it was heading west and there was no stopping or turning it, meanwhile she got tangled up in another rod so my buddy lost about 2/3 of a spool of his brand new Power Pro before he could get it cut. A few seconds of Keystone Cops during that one. We assume it was a large shark.
Things slowed down and I suddenly caught the bottom of the ocean except I could move it some, played with it up and down for a bit before I apparently really upset it and it decided it wasn't going to stop and broke/cut me off, I assume that was a goliath but we never saw it.
Passed 2 FWC boats coming in on the river but no stops.
Loaded up and stopped at Angelo's for supper. Didn't stop at Crum's but looks like they have renovated and moved the gas pumps. Stopped at a brand new Marathon station/superstore back towards St Mark and they had non-ethanol gas at a lot of pumps from what I could see.
Young lady at The Moorings was very helpful, room was basic but clean, bed was comfortable. I'd skip the free breakfast and eat a honey bun/protein bar or bring a microwave biscuit next time just to get out quicker but would definitely stay there again.
After watching several boats pull up and deploy their iPilots to use the Spot Lock Anchor feature I think my buddy is sold on that concept.
First keeper or near keeper near shore grouper for my wife and I, we had fun and a couple of bags of fish and really full belly's so a good day all around.