Fishing Report of 02-06-02 Courtesy of Capt. Randy Craft

Post by **Tom Keels** » February 19th, 2002, 12:52 pm

Fishing Report of 2-6-02
Apalachicola, St. George Island to St. Marks, Florida -- Offshore

It might have been Sam Clements that said it first. The rumors of my passing have been greatly exaggerated.

Yep, Im back! And, I must apologize to the folks that regularly check on my fishing reports. This time of year is sort of our time off and I have had a whole bunch of irons in the fire making it anything but time off. Theres not a whole bunch going on fishing wise as the weather makes it hard to get a good fishin day in with the fronts marching through back to back.

We did have an excellent trip with Big Daddy Roger Croft and his crew of Keith and Lisa Hodge, David Enfinger, Herman Coppage and Justin Ply all from the Valdosta, Georgia area on the 5th of January. I had hoped to have other trips to tell you about, but the weather has caused us to postpone 5 other scheduled trips to later in the year and Big Daddys crew was the last we were able to take out to date.

Big Daddy and his crew, all very fine folks and competent fishermen, did a great job on the 16 near Bubba grouper that picked on us that day. All were nice sized and frisky going to 26#.

Yes Sir, the fish are out there and would love to see us if Mother Nature would allow us to visit.

This is also the time of year we take the opportunity to do yearly maintenance required by DEBO TOO and any other hard working vessel. We pull her, give her a fresh coat of bottom paint, replace all the zinc anodes and do a bunch of other things to make sure she is ready for the coming season. Shes got to be spiffy n standing tall no later than March 1st of each year.

I elected to take her down to south Florida for maintenance that is hard to get in our area and actually got a window of two days of good weather to do it in. It was a very nice run down across the Florida Middle Grounds to Cuts Edge Harbor Marina in Palmetto, Florida. A distance of about 240 miles that DEBO TOO and I covered in 11 hours. We had a nice stern sea of about 2 all the way and it was closely akin to setting in a big ole, gentle, rocking chair the whole trip.

Ron Jago, the marina manager, and his crew did their usual top quality work to DEBO TOO and my lady Debo and I went down to run her back up this past Friday. The plan was to stay for Rons birthday party Saturday and fish our way back up on Sunday and Monday. I marked some really nice bottom on the way down and wanted to check it out at our leisure.

Well, Mother Nature had other plans for us.

At complete odds with the long range forecast issued by NOAA that I based my trip plans on, the weather turned sour and we had to leave Saturday morning to try to beat the blow that was then being predicted. Its good we did. We pulled into our slip on Sunday and its been blowing like rip ever since.

Debo and I did manage to slip in a couple of hours of fishing time on the way back and were able to invite our limit of 10 Bubba grouper in the 30# class to dinner at our house. Its a shame that little spot is so far offshore. She and I both got spanked by some sure nuff Big Boys that had absolutely no respect for our 80# test tackle. It was really SWEET!

Post by **Cranfield** » February 19th, 2002, 6:20 pm

Nice report Tom, how big is your boat?

Post by **Tom Keels** » February 19th, 2002, 6:28 pm

That's not my report. I just posted it for Capt. Randy.

Post by **Cranfield** » February 19th, 2002, 7:04 pm

Oops sorry, I can see that now.

What make and model is his boat?

BigbaitBigfish · Post by **BigbaitBigfish** » February 20th, 2002, 2:31 pm

Big!

Post by **Tom Keels** » February 20th, 2002, 3:07 pm

Here is a pic...

Wil · Post by **Wil** » February 20th, 2002, 3:34 pm

DEBO TOO is a 36' footer with a 14' beam. The rear deck reminds me of the living room at my 1st apartment.

Post by **Cranfield** » February 20th, 2002, 5:17 pm

Thank you for posting a picture Tom,

Thats a nice boat, overall size and appearance is very similar to a UK offshore charter boat.
In the report of his journey, I assumed we were talking of a reasonably substantial craft.

Jere Firth · Post by **Jere Firth** » February 21st, 2002, 12:55 am

nice looking boat I hope I can get something like that in the near furture......

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Jere Firth on 2002-02-21 4:56 am ]</font>

Post by **Cranfield** » February 21st, 2002, 9:55 am

Jere, You would certainly need to get a lot of use out of a boat that size.
The initial investment and ongoing running costs would be high.
That doesn,t look a cheap boat to own.

Nice though, very,very nice.

I guess we just keep on buying the Lottery tickets.

Jere Firth · Post by **Jere Firth** » February 21st, 2002, 10:19 am

Cranfield.....hope fuly after the better half retires we are going to buy a live aboard boat....I have friends doing the samething right now and they love it...they can go where ever they please on the water.....if to hot at one spot then they move to another.........they are all over Florida and the east coast.....one day when they do a panhandle run Cindy and I want to join them.........think I still have a few friends up their.....

Post by **Sawbones** » February 21st, 2002, 10:25 am

You do Jere.

Post by **Cranfield** » February 21st, 2002, 1:03 pm

Jere, that sounds like a great plan, I envy you, fishing out of your front door and following the sun.
Doesn,t get a lot better than that.

I must go and buy some more lottery tickets.

Spear Bender · Post by **Spear Bender** » February 21st, 2002, 6:43 pm

The boat is a 36' 'Seahawk'. The boats are custom made for the buyer, yes it has a 14' beam and the boat is made in Sebring, FL.
As many of you know by now, Capt K and I are in the middle of getting a new boat 'bigger' for the charter business. One of the boats we have our eye on right now is a Seahawk (as you see in the above picture).

BigbaitBigfish · Post by **BigbaitBigfish** » February 21st, 2002, 11:14 pm

Bender/K - have you checked out the island hoppers? I hear they are a pretty good boat, but hard to find....don't know anything on how they're priced.