“LONG Version”If you follow my reports you may recognize the common suspects on our boat this past summer and one of those is an east coaster from St Mary’s, GA., Buster T. Well ever since they gave us back a few weekends of Snapper we’ve been trying to get Buster a return trip this time with his better half. Larry our habitual additional redhead to the 2 reds and a crab fishing team, was also accompanied by his bride so we had to make arrangements other than the Lanark hacienda especially since BlueH20Fisherman was in the trailer this weekend, so we made port up the river at friend Dean's little abode.
Got into C-belle Friday @ noon and headed right for Dean’s palace on the Carrabelle River for a couple of very relaxing days in a great house! If you need to rent a place in C-Belle this is it! Some of our crew had other obligation Friday like golfing and Kids, so Buster, his bride, and Larry’s better half joined me traveling down to Carrabelle. Buster and I launched the C.C. ran the river up to the house and set a few crab traps up for the weekend. Docked up and was greeted by Dean himself and a visit from Blue H20Fisherman we then sat and enjoyed some oysters on the porch overlooking the river until the other crew arrived.
Saturday morning the usual suspects at C-quarters; our own TideDancer included, shook their heads as we prepped and iced for an offshore excursion, skepticism and cynicism filled the air, but we were not thwarted by their beliefs as fuel entered the Celestial Crab their commentary only fueling our own hearts with anticipations of a challenge.
Once through the pass we all knew that challenge was only up to us since the horrible conditions were mild at best, seas ran 1-2 basically a rough bay chop and since we had no desires of hitting 90 feet we never saw anything near the predicted 4 footers, it’s too bad because the only boats we saw all day was a freighter and one other walk-around headed offshore.
Well I better get to the fishing, we all had a great time only hitting two spots from @ 11 AM - 3:30 PM tide was pushing us north against the wind most of the day and fish hit the box on a regular basis until later in the day when high tide approached. Pictures were secondary since fish were high and temps were not, but here is day ones tally best I can remember, 5 snapper Celeste taking the lions share with two great 24¼ inch fish that could have been clones. Here is one the other was the same exact size so no picture.
She and the boys ended up putting 5 snapper in the box all over 20 inches and we did not catch a short or small snapper all day! We also managed 2 keeper gags and pulled out a rocked up red grouper after giving him the slack treatment, hence the big smile from Larry!
Most grouper and snaps were caught on LY or sand perch and all fish came out of water between 45 and 55 ft! I even managed a small AJ jigging our last spot which is 55 ft and I’ve never seen them there! Captain Joe also managed to add a 19 inch flounder to the mix with a few big sea basses on my little squid tipped jig. There were lots of short red grouper and gags, but only one grunt caught all day!!
Dialed the Celestial Crab in and tabbed her down for a smooth, but quick ride to the hill. Pulled some nice crabs out of the pots re-baited and hit the house for pheasant dinner; birds supplied by Larry’s previous weeks hunting in SD, and fixings by captain and occasional cook.
Sunday we slept in and waited the -.48 tide to start coming back before heading offshore with the same C-Quarters crew shaking heads and talking about 23 ft boats going out turning around, but not us Celeste took the easy day a the house with book in hand and the 3 amigos headed south. Colder and windier, Sunday was not 1-2 and we were lucky to see those only near the leeward side of the islands due to the conditions we didn’t stay long, but each managed a good fish to go with a few BSB and hit the hill early to pack up for the trip home.
Sunday’s fish.
Had a great time with great friends!
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