We stopped and caught 2 dozen blue runners at the green can in the pass then headed to O tower. Seas were a little confused but were generally under 2 feet. We got to O and saw Steve Stinson in his 21 foot bay boat and felt just a little bit scared for him looking at the skies to the southeast.
We proceeded to catch another 3 dozen cigar minnows, tomtates and spanish sardines and went to our first number. But first we had to see what the shrimper wanted that beckoned us over. After some quick chit chat, we traded him 6 beers for a 5 pound bag of squid and octopus. He said he had caught some AJ's on anchor and said he had seen some blackfin tuna the day before.
20 minutes later we arrive at our spot and just start looking around. We ran over several nice spots of good looking bottom so we reversed course and drifted. I hooked up first as I set my rod in the holder to put out the flatline. By the time I got to it, it had doubled over and the line broke. A quick retie and I hookup again this time with a 5 foot shark. One of the other guys hooked up a shark and another was cut off. Finally deployed the flatline and it was quickly inhaled by a 10 pound king. My next 3 bottom fish were also kings.
We continued to drift catching sharks kings and the occasional grouper, and getting broken off on big fish a lot. All the while it is pouring down rain on us. And Chuck, who is as gracious a captain as I've seen, was content to gaff, re-rig, and control the boat. I tried several times to get him to fish, but he said he was happy just helping out as the two other guys were pretty new to the offshore game.
We finally decided to anchor when the current and wind were drifting us too fast to keep lines on the bottom. That was when all hell broke loose and the bottom fell out. It began pouring rain again and we were catching huge red grouper, snapper, gags, kings and bonitas (up to 15 pounds) on the bottom. I was only able to get a few pictures in btween the deluges. I finally got Chuck to start fishing while I fixed a sandwich. By this time we had switched over to LY's, and everyone was hooked up. Chuck managed to land two nice gags over 10, one of which was 15 or better. When the rain let up, the kings were striking the surface, so I grabbed my stradic and proceeded to hookup 3 kings on one cast the 3rd tailwhipping the line and cutting me off. I switched to a top dog and had them skyrocketing to get it. FUN!
It was 11:00 and we were out of live bait and Chuck wanted to get an AJ so we decided to head back to the tower on the way to the Yamaha. When we got to the tower we met a thunderstorm head on that really kicked up the seas a lot. There was a boat tied up to the tower and we saw a guy pull a really nice gag off of it fully intact!
We decided after looking in the fish boxes that we didn't have any room for an AJ anyway and that we should probably call it a day. We headed back to Chuck's river house and had the fish and boat cleaned by 2:00. Just enough time to relax have a cold one and head up to the tournament weigh-in. Here are the pictures below. There would have been more but I could only take them when the rain would let up. We ended the day with 9 reds (to 16 pounds), 4 gags (to 15 pounds), 3 kings, and a 12 pound red snapper.
