Despite consistently strong winds we managed our goal of fishing Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and even managed to make it to close to 30' deep on Saturday for a couple of hours of grouper fishing. Decided to post in the "inshore" section as our hottest action was in waters between 2' to 8'.
Each day we started our trip out with a quick run to nearshore depths (approx. 8')... my thinking was we could catch both game fish and bait while waiting to see if the waters calmed enough to run out deeper. We threw a little of everything, including live shrimp, topwater plugs, soft-plastic fish bodies, and gulp jigs. All three days we had a relatively steady bite while drifting from 8' until we reached approx. 5'. By far, largest number of fish caught were ladyfish, but we had enough trout, mackerel, and bluefish mixed in to keep us wondering what was on the line each time we had a bite. Keeping things interesting for Tommy were occasional catches of new species he had never seen such as lizardfish and remora.
After drifting the nearshore depths on Thursday and Friday, we spent both afternoons cruising hard bottom & oyster bars looking for reds. The reds really gave Barry and Tommy a show - 11 reds on Thursday, and 7 more on Friday. Below are a few pics from the first two days out.
Barry with a nice red on day 1...
![Image](http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z83/bigbendgyrene/Barry1.jpg)
Barry with another nice red...
![Image](http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z83/bigbendgyrene/Barry2.jpg)
Tommy showing off a trout...
![Image](http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z83/bigbendgyrene/Tom1.jpg)
By Saturday, I was willing to throw some caution to the wind (literally) and decided to do my best to get offshore the first half of the day. The decision paid off. We bottom fished using pinfish and got close to 10 hits. We lost the first few fish to structure, but kept at it and started bringing fish to the boat. Final offshore tally was 4 grouper, with the last being a nice one that really gave Barry a heck of a fight
![:thumbup:](./images/smilies/emthup.gif)
![Image](http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z83/bigbendgyrene/Barry4.jpg)
I truly believe that we were all ready to call it a day after a tough ride out and back in from catching the grouper, but I just couldn't resist giving the redfish one last try on the way back in and the payoff was BY FAR the highlight of the trip. 19 reds all caught out of the same school, and even better yet THREE SEPARATE TRIPLES
![:thumbup:](./images/smilies/emthup.gif)
![:thumbup:](./images/smilies/emthup.gif)
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Hot-hand Barry gets things started...
![Image](http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z83/bigbendgyrene/Barry5.jpg)
And catches another...
![Image](http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z83/bigbendgyrene/Barry6.jpg)
I decide to join in on the fun...
![Image](http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z83/bigbendgyrene/John1.jpg)
TRIPLE TIME!!!
![Image](http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z83/bigbendgyrene/Triple.jpg)
Tom and I show off our two contributing fish for the second triple (Barry was a bit quick with his release!)...
![Image](http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z83/bigbendgyrene/Double-1.jpg)
And Barry's back on again...
![Image](http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z83/bigbendgyrene/Barry7.jpg)
Can't think of a better way to end the post than by sharing a picture of Tommy with a grin from ear to ear, as he sets the hook on one of our last reds. MAN, what a trip! One I'll remember for a long, long time!
![:thumbup:](./images/smilies/emthup.gif)
![Image](http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z83/bigbendgyrene/HavingFun.jpg)