Fishing Report of 04-06-02 Courtesy of Capt. Randy Craft

[Tom Keels]

Fishing Report of 4-6-02
Apalachicola, St. George Island to St. Marks, Florida -- Offshore

Sorry I havent reported recently. We have been busy as rip taking folks fishing this first week of April and all of the trips have been a bunch of fun, if not as productive as we would have wished.

Weve had some unusually severe water temperature fluctuations of late and I believe its contributing to the fickleness of our fishy friends. A couple of days this past week we were able to catch pin and pig fish for live bait quickly and in suitable quantities. Then a little over night cool snap would drop the water temperature causing them to vamoose off the flats out of our reach.

The grouper and snapper cant decide if they want to feed in the morning or the afternoon or feed at all. This fickleness occurs a couple of times each year, but thankfully only last for a couple of weeks.

We are blessed, though, with nice clean, clear waters offshore. Theres no black water in our area and I feel for the boys down in Key West having to contend with that strange stuff.

Our last charter of March came on the 28th. Howison Schroeder brought his two kids, Jack (9) and Liz (15) along with their friends Porter (15) and Elizabeth (12) down for a half day trip on the Gulf. A fun time was had as the black sea bass and ruby lip snappers swarmed us on about every stop. One grouper at about 12# decided to join our feed up party, but the big guys I was marking were being snooty.

April 2nd, Richard, Logan (13) and Bob Williams brought along their buds Don Britt and Charles and Katherine (13) Price down from the Snellville Loganville area up in Georgia to enjoy a full day of fish fights with us.

And, fish fights we had! The first stop showed nice near bubba grouper and they were in the mood to feed-----thank goodness. Grunts and grins all around for the whole day brought 20 very nice grouper to 18#, a lane snapper and several black sea bass back to the hill for the trip to Georgia. Beautiful, calm seas, hungry fish and great fisherfolk make for a mighty fine day.

Carl Updyke and his wife, Mercedes brought their kids, Alicia and Vincent along with their buds, Donald Douglas and Brian Rickie up from Miami, Fl. to fish with us on the 3rd. Danny, now my ex-deckhand, failed to show for the last time and we went fishing without him.

Snooty grouper greeted us at pretty much all the stops we made that day. 5 did finally decide to bite with the largest going about 17#. We had a nice mess of ruby lips and black sea bass to round out a pretty fair catch.

The bright spot of the trip came with a large school of offshore red fish visiting us on one of the stops. It was an instantaneous 6 fisherfolk hook-up with a whole lotta grunting and squealing going on. Of the 6 hooked, 4 fell within the slot limit at exactly 27 on the upper side. The other 2 were just HUGE spawners and were quickly released to continue to do their thing.

The Kidd and Clark clans fished with me on the 4th, and a finer set of fisher families could not be asked for by any Captain. Michael, Marilyn, Jon J., and Chris Kidd hail from Delton, MI.. Maggie and Mike Clark are old friends transplanted in Ackworth, GA.

We had 2 to 3 seas, a clearing day and high spirits as we rounded Dog Island in search of bubba groupers and OTO. I made in excess of 13 stops at what should have been very productive spots in depths from 42 on out to 78. What we were greeted with was legions of ruby lipped snapper and black sea bass and what I thought were very picky bubbas. Then, the bananas were discovered onboard.

Its an old superstition that you NEVER take bananas on a fishing boat as it causes that no-catch monkey to be on your back all day. Im not as superstitious as many captains, but I do know that after the bananas were scarfed up, we started catching grouper.

13 nice, near bubbas to 16# were added to the near ton of rubys and black sea bass to make for a fun productive day.

A half day morning trip was just the ticket for Bryan Tomlin and his son Zack (9).
They brought their friends Jamie, Ty, Chase and Sally to help out with the catchin duties on the 5th. Lawrenceville, Ga. And Marion, Ohio can be proud of this crew. They nailed 8 nice grouper to 18# and a nice mess of rubys and black sea bass on a half day trip. Its a tough trick to pull off, but these kids did it with style and a bunch of grins.

Arnold Conforti, from up in Louisville, Ky. brought all his children (4) and their buddy Lauren Neumann to catch the second half of the 5th.
We all became victims of fish lockjaw in the afternoon and felt very proud of the single grouper at 12# and one ruby lip snapper that finally decided to bite. It happens to the best of us and its why they call it fishin and not catchin.

Take those kids fishin
&
Catch Em Up!

Capt. Randy