Between two..

[Ranaman]

Ok test Over here is the deal I am injured have had tendon surgury on my right hand so typing is not up to par so I'm not going to do the normal Celestial Crab big report.

Celestial Crab docked next to Up the creek raw bar while while we enjoyed my birthdayt dinner night before our adventure.


Birthday was the 27th and Annivesary the 29th so we went fishing last day of (Fed) Red Snapper between the two!

I also was lucky enough to have my lovely mate Celeste and beautiful daughter, Emily with us, along with some good friends Rhettly, Brad and Joel.

NOAA's 1-2 footers became 3-5's and we still said were going couldn't get to where we wanted SW of Bob Sikes but made a long run south with a 15-20 mph west SW wind throwing the spray at poor Rhettly the whole way out!



we managed to chug out to a number way south and found NADA had to motor back up and go 5 more miles to over 110 ft! got there and waves were building even more so I said let get it done and get to the hill!!
marked good fish and everyone dropped and was hooked up!! mix of Vermillion and Smaller red snapper. Rhet doesn't make it to bottom next drop and gets slammed by a nice keeper snapper, then Emily hooks up another monster. Celeste and Brad get into the Game with just legal snapper and then both catch a big Gag grouper seconds apart (yes I made them vent and release fish) I was not popular at that point and time, nor were the feds for closing Trigger when Joel landed a monster! but we mad the most of it and had a some nice vermillion and red snapper before we headed back the 2 hours to the hill very rough conditions rough day for me as a captain, but alls well that ends well!! Great Trip with great friends and family!!

[Rhettley]

Emily was a trooper to fish and never complain in those waves we were in. It was rough but it was fun. Tell Celeste again I'm sorry about stomping on her toes. Standing up was a neat trick... What Joe didn't mention was that after 5 minutes of holding us on a hole we would have to pull up and drive around to dump the water out of the boat from the waves coming over the back side. It was interesting when you drop a big 3 pound vermillion snapper on the floor of the boat and it starts swimming around! I was actually surprised we were able to put so many snapper and vermillion in the box in those conditions.
Thanks for taking me along Joe.

[reeltherapy]

NOAA seems to have become really good at being wrong. Glad you were able to make a great day out of it, and your crew was able to take such a beating and keep on going.

[Ranaman]

Thanks for taking me along Joe.

Thank you!! Rhett great having you along finally!!

RT if it wern't for the scopolamine patch on two of my MALE anglers we would have never made it out there!! Those girls of mine are hard core anglers!

[Tidedancer]

Sounds like you had a great birthday trip. Great crew and crummy seas. But you were building memories that will last a lifetime. Congrats on the trip.

[Hit-n-Miss]

Nice those are some healthy fish. Love the mask and snorkle.

[big bend gyrene]

Awesome, awesome, AWESOME report... as usual!

[fishinfool]

[mjsigns]

Good post and those conditions looked really rough, but ya stuck to the plan and presto

[tallykenj]

[Ranaman]

Good post and those conditions looked really rough, but ya stuck to the plan and presto

Thanks Everyone. mj it was a Hearty crew that made that trip possible, and it was actually a little deviation of plans since direction I wanted was nearly impossible! My girls, the guys not one complaint all day, we made fun of it all. Honestly it wore me out, I'm not ashamed to say that I was literally in tears at the end of it all. the surgery hand splint busted, bruised leg from smashing the drivers seat standing up on way in for two hours, dropped a motor in river picking up our pin trap, after running in 36 miles, (ended up being a $.40 cotter pin) but I was stressed I ruined something banging it out on the ay home, dropped a perfectly legal keepersnapper into the river trying to get it in cooler on dock, had to legally return, my friend Brad's personal best grouper and it was heartbreaking, the tow vehicle conked out at the launch ramp and we had to leave it in Apalach. thank God for good friends and a wonderful wife and daughter!