We headed out Friday evening after verifying that the weather gods were going to do what they want, but Ken said not to worry if it’s too bad we’d fish behind the islands, so we’d get out no matter what just to be on the water. After stopping at Crum’s to make Dad a legal fisherman and to pick up a trolling bait we stopped by to say a quick hello to Ken and family and after quite a few stories from the two big guys Dad and I descended on the Lanark trailer (THANKS TODD!!) Slept great and was ready to go early.
Dad and I didn’t have many supplies so we did an IGA breakfast and sat down at marina in front of the boat and had breakfast together while waiting on Ken and his son Jason and son-in-law Frankie. When the boys got there we had already loaded everything wiped down the boat and were ready to go after Frankie and I loaded her up with Ice and bait. We slowly eased out of the river into nice sunny morning; however a breezy southerly wind was in our face as the extreme low tide exposed all the oyster bars for future river trips.
After doing some bait searching behind Dog Island we managed to creep out of the pass to some deeper water and after changing directions shortly after the cut because of some pretty stiff rollers coming out of the south, with the wind picking up speed it seemed every time we tried to ease out farther. We realized that even if we got to some of the numbers Ken and I wanted to fish we would have one hell of a rodeo trying to anchor and fish up and down so I suggested to Ken that we might as well do some trolling seeing that we can’t go very fast in the now 3-6 foot seas anyway and I quickly re-rigged one of my rods which I had braid on, after a quick run over one of our close in numbers I picked up our first grouper of the day a nice short gag just after setting the rod in the holder after letting the lure out; a blue and silver no name trolling lure I’ve had for years.
Dad asked what the fish was and as I told him as I was releasing it and he looked shocked
and said “isn’t that what we want!!” I told him that we have to put that one through one heck of a stretching machine to make it a legal keeper which is 22 inches :biglaugh: He seemed surprised that they had to be that big! We eased out to little deeper number and rigged up the other trolling rod with a clown colored Stretch. This turned out to be Dads hot bait and his three keepers all came off this color!! Ok this is getting long so I’ll get on with the pictures and the long and short of it! Dad managed his first EVER grouper a stout 10lber shortly after setting the Clown out and quickly managed to land 2 more. While reeling in his 3rd grouper I was reeling in my lure not wanting to be in the way of Dad fighting another nice fish and we managed a double! Frankie got into the action and grabbed another big Gag to end the day!
This could have easily been a skunk of a day and thank God for Ken’s persistence and my Dads willingness to be bounced around a little on an otherwise beautiful day! Only saw one other boat all day!
Mine and my Dads extreme thanks to Ken and the boys for allowing he and I a trip that will never be forgotten!!
Dads First Grouper!! A Nice 27 1/2 inches not the longest, but it weighed 10 lbs.
Second a respectable 24”.
Dad hooked his 3rd a 27” and me with a nice 26” a double while reeling in the other rod!
Frankie picks up one, the longest fish a 28 incher that weighed just over 9 lbs.
Our limit!!
Totals:
5 keepers Gag 24"-28"
1 short @ 18"
One GREAT day on the water with friends and Fathers!
