Rods go down, antenna and we pointed the bow into the storm, puckered up and rode her out! Cold rain soaked us for 30 minutes or so then started to slow and the skies brightened slightly and the lightning drifted away to the West, so we headed back to our spot; we had drifted some ways away from and decided to troll a skirt and a cigar back to the spot. The rig was in the water and engaged all of 3 seconds before a nice little keeper king hit and quickly made its way to the box! Once we arrived back at our spot we had some company trying to beat us to the hook, but we were there first and got a good hold that put us right in the mix and fish started coming in quickly. Sterling was the hot hand for a while with a number of just legal snapper hitting the decks I vented anything that was subject or less than 17 inches and released them knowing the fish were turned on. I was right because Larry and Buster got into the act and got some decent ARS for the box! The guys lost a few rigs to some monsters and after I lost my vertical Jig I got into the dead bait action as Buster pulls a 8 lb snapper into the boat!
The limit was filling quickly and I had only the little king to show for my efforts so I was determined to get into the snapper bite before the box said times up! Well first up was a decent keeper, but I didn’t want to just put in a 17-18 inch fish with just one or two spots left so I vented it along with another that Sterling caught and then Larry! We had actually now caught well over our limit, but due to my stringent keeper status and after doing a re-ice and box count realized we had room for two more, so I put down what I call the panacea special on the double dropper (squid wrapped LY) and sent it back down. I was in gear 2 seconds when I cranked down on a bite only to have my drag start screaming I tightened that a notch as I lifted and cranked to get the fish up from the bottom then more drag slipped from the reel and I knew this was a good fish. As it surfaced the guys were busy catching their own so I grab the boga and lipped the pig into the boat, just in time too because Larry had secured Ice spot 7 with a nice 6 lb fish luckily my tiny 9+ lb snapper was #8 and I got one in the box!!
AR Snapper limit secured we yielded to the other boat and let him and his girls get into the action! We also managed some of the largest vermillion snapper I had ever seen, a Lane snapper and Sterling caught his first Mangrove!! The 8 lb’r that Buster caught turns out to be his largest AR Snapper ever so we were all quite please.The lightning was now kicking up CLOSE again we decided to take the stinging rainy ride home!
The girls Beach trip also got rained out and they happened to be in Apalach as we returned so they meet us at the ramp with some warm DRY towels and we headed over to Tamara’s for some coffee. After getting back to Lanark the sun came out and it turned into a beautiful afternoon, but looking at out creel put the second guessing to rest and we all enjoyed a nice fish and shrimp dinner together that evening!
Due to the inclement weather no cameras ventured out of their cases on the water, but here are our deck shots of the fishes!
Special Thanks to God for getting us through the storms and Todd for everything we are able to enjoy down there! Also Special thanks goes out my bride for letting the boys go and to Buster and Sandy for making the long drive over to fish with us!!
