We launched the boat at the Carrabelle River and headed offshore for bait. We couldn’t find cigar minnows on the sonar, so we went to my general purpose bait spot in about 60’. Sandperch a/k/a squirrelfish a/k/a grouper candy quickly hit our small hooks baited with squid. We were catching two baits at a time on most drops of our bait rigs.
With more than enough bait, which also included frozen LYs, frozen cigar minnows, and frozen squid strips, we headed south to our first spot. Soon Paul was straining to hold onto the rod I lent him. Don’t hurt my boat and don’t lose my fishing rods are the two most important rules on my boat. Paul gave it all he had, and he slowly dragged the big gag grouper up from its home on the bottom. At 29 inches, this fish was the biggest fish he had ever caught. Unfortunately, we had to release it.
After all this work, Paul was ready for some snacks followed by a nap. But I said, “No, you need to keep fishing.” A few minutes later, Paul was on the verge of losing my rod again. A big fish slammed his bait and pulled the tip of the rod down to the waterline. I stood close by thinking I would need to snatch the rod before it flew out of Paul’s hands. Paul didn’t give in. He hoisted a 28” red snapper to the surface. This fish was released, too.
Paul clearly had the lucky pole. The rest of us were just catching and releasing undersized red grouper. A friend on a boat 200 yards away was having the same luck. As we tried spots further south, the bite was slow and if we caught fish, they were undersized red grouper.
Here’s what the bottom looked like at our first spot:
Eventually, we made it to a spot that fairly consistently produces lane snapper longer than 15 inches as well as red grouper. In no time, lucky Paul brought up a 13-inch lane on a double dropper rig with 2/0 circle hooks that were baited with squid. With the luck we were having, a 13 inch lane was going in the cooler. Aside from a few tomtates and a small vermilion snapper, nothing else was caught on my lane snapper spot.
Here’s what the bottom looked like at my lane snapper spot:
As the day was getting late, we headed north in the direction of home while trying a few spots along the way. We caught and released another dozen or so undersized red grouper and an undersized triggerfish and that was it.
Here’s what the bottom looked like at one of the spots we fished on the way back to the ramp:
After a day of fishing, I often load the boat onto the trailer and top off my tank at the Lanark Market. This time, I filled up at the newly opened Pirates’ Cove fuel dock. This fuel dock is right across the river from the main public boat ramp in Carrabelle, the Marine Street Boat Ramp. The friendly staff at the fuel dock were quick to help me tie off my boat and hand me the fuel pump handle. They had 89 octane marine gas at $4.73 per gallon.
We explained our lousy day fishing to the Pirates’ Cove staffer. She replied that, “no one had caught anything in Carrabelle during the last week.” This was great news to me because I was not the only one.
A few minutes later, we had loaded the boat onto the trailer. Before we could even strap it down. An FWC officer appeared out of nowhere and asked, “catch anything?” Paul started showing the officer pictures of all the fish he released. I explained that the only fish we kept was a lane snapper. The officer was not surprised. He had already checked a bunch of boats and only one boat had a keeper-sized red grouper, a single 21-inch fish. The officer must have felt sorry for us. He sent us on our way without checking our cooler.
On Sunday, I called my uncle to tell him of about the 13 inch lane snapper. His advice was this—“Buy a saltwater aquarium and put the small fish in it after your next fishing trip.”
Fortunately, even with lousy fishing, I had a great day on the water with good friends.
Your reports are awesome, Looks like fun even though no keepers. 