On Thursday, the trolling motor died when we started fishing for bait. That stunk! Fortunately, the winds and current were weak. Those conditions allowed us to stay over the bait schools and catch plenty of bait with Sabiki rigs. Staying over our grouper and snapper spots, however, was difficult. We drifted through our spots over and over with baits in the strike zone only for short periods of time. Nonetheless, we caught a few keepers.
Here's Thursday's catch:
Friday morning, I called the trolling motor repair shop in Tallahassee to see if I could get parts or service. They said, "If you bring your trolling motor in right away, we might be able to fix it before 5 pm." Wow! Within 2 hours, the shop replaced the steering box and control board. Then people wanted to fish with me again on Saturday.
On Saturday, we launched the boat and headed to our bait spots. On arrival at the first spot, we deployed the trolling motor. It came alive turning this way and that way as it held us in place. It worked like it was new. With a livewell full of mostly cigar minnows, we headed to our deeper spots.
We stopped a few miles before reaching our planned destination when a “snapper tree” appeared on sonar. I figured the "snapper tree" was really just a bait school, but a fishing buddy said, "Let's give it a try." It wasn't long before a big fish was on one of our lines. It seemed to pull and pull like a shark. As the fish neared the surface, we could see it wasn't a shark. It was a BIG red snapper--33 inches long and 17 lbs. in weight. Great start to the morning.
After pulling another fish or two from the spot, sharks really did show up. It was time to move.
We had moved only about a mile when we found another snapper tree. Again, we stopped and caught a snapper or two. We moved to our deep spots when the bite slowed. At our deepest spots, we caught mostly small red grouper, but we managed to find a few keepers and a few red snapper.
We fished our way back to the boat ramp and continued to catch fish including a mahi-mahi that measured 32" to the fork of its tail.
At the boat storage facility, we must remove our fish bag coolers before we can clean the boat. This time the main bag was so heavy with fish that I pulled a muscle trying to lift it.
Here's Saturday's catch:
I hope to do some underwater photography during the next trip.