The bite was slow, so we decided to troll to our next spot, which wasn't too far away. While trolling we spotted a small ledge on the bottom machine, so we dropped a marker and anchored up. We started getting hit almost immediately, but for some reason we couldn't seem to hook up. After a few misses we started pulling in some shorts, and John even got broken off by a big one.
Since the grouper action wasn't that hot (we were expecting better for the afternoon), I decided to start jigging for grunts (I'd normally rather eat grunt than grouper). On about my third drop I got slammed, and it wasn't a grunt. My drag was screaming and the rod was doubled over, and suddenly the rod *exploded*. It was fun while it lasted.
We ended up moving around a bit, and came back to the ledge after the tide turned around. That's when the bite really turned on. Unfortunately, they were mostly short. John hooked up with something, and it was definately not short. Hellooooo nurse...shark:
It was every bit of 7', maybe even bigger.
The (edible) highlight of the afternoon was a big king that tried to snatch the rod out of Tom's hand:
The wind started picking up, and it was starting to get late, so we decided to head in. It was the first good test for the trim tabs (which we put on while the boat was taken apart). The tabs made all the difference in the world. We ran in at 25-30mph through 2-3's with the occasional 4, and it was a mostly smooth run and we even stayed dry.
Total for the day:
2 grouper
1 king
1 spanish
whole buncha grunts
and ta top it off, ya got some good eatin for later 
