After several hours trying to fix it we gave up and headed back to TOdens place in Medart. The next morning we confirmed the boat was still being worked on and would not be ready any time soon.
We had bait, rods and reels ready- along with hall passes from our wives.
A great forecast from NOAA pushed us over the edge and we and decided to take our chances in the skiff.
I ran back to Tallahassee to get the bottom finder- that turned out to be the best decision of the day.
We got to the Panacea Marina about 9am to find the boat in the water and gassed up. The seas were calm and we stopped at the end of the channel to catch some pinfish augmenting our squid, cigar minnows and LYs. After that we ran out to 40' and tried a few public numbers with limited luck. A little longer ride and we got to 60 feet and finely found some action. A few short gags, and a couple of break offs by big amberjack kept us entertained. I put one Mango in the box. We were still hoping for snapper or red grouper. Toden suggested we troll to another number so we ambled long with some stretch25s off the back but found no love.
We decided to pull them in and make a run to another public number. Just as we took off the bottom machine lit up- BIG STRUCTURE! I hit the mark button and we circled back. Fist drift over the spot I dropped a cigar minnow to the bottom and BAM- keeper red grouper!
That was the beginning of three hours of non stop action. We had several doubles and at least one tripple!
One of the most exciting moments was when Wolfman pulled op a 10 foot nurse shark
The grouper bite was solid we caught at least a dozen with as many break offs... Taking home our limit of 6 big Red Grouper. Near the end of our time I put on a lighter rig and caught a box full of grunts- my dad loves them
The only shot of me- cleaning fish
A box shot- after I had been cleaning fish for a while
Brian, aka Bagataway, aka WolfeMan, with a couple of nice fish
I'm ready to go back!
