Carrabelle 03-21-2004

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Tom Keels
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Carrabelle 03-21-2004

Post by Tom Keels »

Got to guide some friends of the family down from South Carolina on their 24 foot Sea Pro out of Carrabelle. Bait man was in the river and we bought 4 dozen pinfish from him. Rounded the island and seas we slick. I told the boys we should go deep and work our way in. I punched in a number to the sw near C tower and we made it there in about 30 minutes. Good show of fish on the bottom but the tide was nearly slack. We caught a couple of shorts and some seabass before the tide stopped. I was feeling a little pressure and they didn't cut me any slack.

They decided they wanted to fish the Exxon template because all they fish up there is artificial structure and they knew how to do it. I said ok and punched the number and off we went. About 3 miles into the trip I see a blip on the depth finder. Off plane and a quick turnaround and we found a nice 6 foot under cut ledge in 78 feet. Buoy it and anchor and it is ON!

Boated several nice red grouper and some huge redfish. 2 6 foot tiger sharks gave them boyz a pull. One guy caught an octopus and I cut a tentacle off and dropped it down. 2 minutes later I pull it up to find a 6 inch pigfish stuck to the tentacle of the octopus!

I handed it to one of the guys and it no sooner hit the bottom and he was doubled up on a big fish. Back and forth for about 10 minutes and a 16.2 pound red grouper hit the deck. Man what a pig that fish was.

Ended up with 13 red grouper, 5 seabass and a couple of grunts. Them boyz was too tired to even think about the template now. Good thing too because man did it get rough in the afternoon. I have never seen the bay as rough as it was today and the pass was a nightmare.

Only casualty today was my Billystix spiralstix rod. The 3 red grouper I hung broke it in half, but Billy and I worked out a deal to replace it. Thanks Billy!

Pinfish started the day off right but once the fish were chewin chub mackerel and LY's were the ticket. Those guys are already talking about taking a few bags of chub mackerel back with them to South Carolina.

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Post by Chalk »

Wind didn't get bad? It was howling up here most of the day...... :thumbup:
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Post by Tom Keels »

It was flat up until about 11. By 2 it was howling about 25 out of the west. Came back in from O tower at 18 mph. Took an hour and 15 minutes. We surfed in the pass. I was white knuckled on the wheel.
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Post by Fishin 911 »

I was wondering it was picked up out there today. I saw the wind blowing today around 11 up in Tallahassee.

Glad you had a good trip and made it in back safe. :thumbup:
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Post by Sawbones »

:thumbup: :thumbup:
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Post by GeneO. »

Very Nice Day Tom!!! :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:
Sounds and looks like you guys had a lot of fun and a lot of success.
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Post by Sea Fox »

Those are some nice reds. Did NOAA miss the forecast again? Glad yall are OK. 8)
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Post by Tom Keels »

No they got the forecast exactly right. The forecast was for 1 foot gradually building to 2-3 feet by late afternoon. The 2-3s were on top of each other with about a 5 second period though.
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Post by Sir reel »

Good job there Capt'n :D Thanks for the report. Your crew looks happy and that tells the story :thumbup:
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Post by Will_Fish_4_Food »

Nice catch!

We were south of O tower at 1pm when it started really getting nasty...However we did not do as well as you.
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Post by SteveL »

Tom

Great catch. What a weekend from trout to grouper :thumbup:
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