NOAA seemed determined to depress me with it's subtropical storm predictions but by Saturday night I was gaining confidence things weren't going to be as bad as predicted. Talked to Tom Keels and he said that he and Atticus would meet me at daylight. Get to the ramp and think it's either closed or Armageddon has hit... Tom and Atticus waiting for me but it's full sun up and I see only one other truck in the entire lot. And THANK THE LORD the wind, while blowing, is not outside the envelope for making a run offshore 
.Load up the livewell with pins and head out. Tom shows me his GPS screen of offshore hard bottom/ledge spots and hardly helps me at all as the screen is just a dark blob with thousands of intersecting lines and target markings
Tom assures me that he can guide me to some good spots and though they are no deeper than 35' we can fill my coffin box. First spot we target I don't even get a pinfish to the bottom before the drags clicking
. Land a 32" cobe.
We make a couple of small moves and pick up a number of short grouper... until... Tom has one try and take the rod out of his hand. Showing Atticus and me how it's done, Tom powers a beast up from the bottom... a 30"+ 15 pound monster. Tom announces he is now "officially" happy
Without too much travel we manage to continue to find nice groupers though most are just short. All in all we pulled in at least a dozen grouper, though Tom ended the day with the only two keeper grouper. I found it easy not to be too jealous of Tom, however, as towards the end of our day this bruiser decided to cruise by and take my pinfish with him. Hard fighting 28 pounder made us chase him about 750 yards!
We put the cobe on ice and Tom teases me that I'm going to have to get a bigger boat with a bigger coffin box
Not to be outdone, Tom decided to get in on the cobia action too. The highlight of his fight involved Atticus, who up until this point had seemed more content telling us QUITE entertaining stories than hurting himself yanking fish up. As soon as Tom hooked his Cobia, Atticus exclaims, "I swear I can bring cobia in the boat by yanking 'em in by the tail!". Tom and I both look at each other and share a "Where did that come from?" shrug as well as a "Should we let him hurt himself?" look. Tom grows a sly grin that says, "Let him"
.Well, have to give Atticus deserved props... he has to make about three splash-filled attempts...
... but when he finally gets the cobe by the tail, he is lightning fast in swinging him in the boat
Here's Tom still grinning...
And have to add a note on a part of the trip I think Tom and I both enjoyed... tagging four short cobes caught throughout the day. Sent off for the tags late in 2008 and had begun to wonder if I would ever put them to use. Well, used half the tags in ONE trip
Here's some tagging photos...
Day 2... yep, there was a day 2 but I'm too tired to type much more so will keep it brief. Went out with Sharkman thinking we would have a wind free day, according to NOAA and found they lie both ways. Was windier than predicted and we had a heck of a time getting out and coming back in. Though the water was rough, fishing was still hot. Basically, repeat of day 1. Will finish with a pic of Sharkman about to release another tagged cobe.
