At 6:00am, the crew finally showed up and loaded up for a full day of fishing
We made the run out and stopped a few miles from the spot to do some trolling while the guys got their rigs set up for some intense bottom fishing. We managed nothing on the troll, so when the rigs were ready, we put the hammer down to the spot. We arrived at the spot a few minutes later and got a really good show on the bottom. Jeff sends down a diamond jig and in no time BAMMM!!!!! Big fish on with a medium tackle setup......
What seemed like an eternity later, the fish was at the surface.....a nice KING!!!!! We finally hauled the fish in the boat and it proceeded to beat the crap out of everything in reach. So, we broke out the "still stick" and here was the result....
What a way to start the morning
Jeff sends down the diamond jig again and in no time....BAMM again. This time, big tug. A few minutes later, this beast came up.....a nice 30 lb. black grouper
This picture didn't even do the fish justice
At the same time, Paul gets this hookup....a nice gag!
We stay in this same spot and get numerous nice hookups....here's Jeff playing around with one
He's starting to get a little spent at this point and we had just got started....must be time for a cold
Here's the lazy fisherman (Steve) of the day with a nice gag. He caught all his fish using his thumb and lower back.....
About noon, this thing shows up in the distance. We watched it form, drop and then disipate...kinda cool as long as it stayed away....
Then the boys decided to get in on the fun....
I had seen enough of everybody else catching fish, so I put the boat in drift mode and grabbed the rod and went to the bow. Sent down a whole squid and BAMM!!!!!! This fish did not want to come up so I held on till he was ready to move......
I decided that I could do this a few more times and managed to catch 8 straight grouper on 8 straight drops on squid and cigar minnows.....
Did I mention that we were having a blast despite the heat???????
Then the amberjack got in on the live pinfish action......
At this point, some of the more out of shape fisherman had to take a break while the rest of us threw grouper at them to put in the box
Needed a little help on this one......
At the end of the day, we decided to make one more drift over the spot and managed a triple hookup!!!!!
With the fish boxes FULL and time getting away from us, not to mention a crew of worn out fisherman, we took it back to the pass and left the fish biting. Here's our offload on the beach......
A look at a fine day of fishing.....
Time to strike a pose.....
All I can say, is this was one of the most stellar days I've ever had offshore. Definately hard to top this one!!!!!
Gonna need at least another day to recover from this one
TOTAL FOR THE DAY: 20 GAGS
10 SCAMPS
10 RED SNAPPER
3 AMBERJACK
2 RED GROUPER
1 BIG BLACK GROUPER
3 SPECKLED GROUPER (ONLY 1 KEEPER)
3 SMOKER KINGS
THE FISH BIT ANYTHING WE THREW AT THEM ALL DAY LONG. THE BITE WAS NEVER SLACK. PINFISH AND SQUID WERE THE REAL BAIT FOR THE DAY. DIAMOND JIGS PRODUCED NICELY OFF THE BOTTOM. THE SNAPPER PREFERRED CIGAR MINNOWS AND SQUID. FISHING DEPTH 150 FT.
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