Apalach Grouper fishing 4/17/10

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WaltDawg
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Apalach Grouper fishing 4/17/10

Post by WaltDawg »

Talked about going inshore but I got a call from my Dad last Wednesday saying he was itching to go offshore. He said he knew a guy that was available and once I looked at the weather, I was sold. We had room for six, so my Dad called a couple of his buddies and I called my bartender Millertime. Seas were predicted at 1-2 or less than one foot so we were feeling pretty psyched on Friday. My Dad said the wind was howling at SGI Thursday and Friday but I promised him that NOAA was never wrong on a weekend weather prediction. :roll:

Saturday morning we met up, loaded the coolers and took bets on whether the wind was going to cooperate or not. The ride out was pretty smooth and once we got about 10 miles out the water really started to get slick. Around 9:30 we got to around 70 feet and started looking for bait. It took us a while to load up the live well but we ended up with enough good sized squirrel fish and pig fish to give us just about all we needed.
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Took off to around 90 feet to try our luck. Since Dad sponsored the trip, we decided to let him toss the first one down.
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Spot one and two didn't do much for us, so me and Millertime thought that a beer might help the bite.
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Turns out the beer really didn't help too much, but 120 feet of water did. Had a lot of grouper come up about twenty feet off the bottom, but all we got to the boat was a half eaten bait. Fortunately it didn't take too long to get some slime on the boat.
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We landed a couple shorts and some nice snapper, but the bite didn't really turn on until late afternoon. We hooked up with a couple reds but got our limit of gags in about 20 minutes on our next to last stop. The good thing is that the majority of the fish were quality fish. I wish I had some bent rod shots but when we were on them, it was on fire. Not a lot of time for pics.
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Overall, the sees were ridiculously calm all day which made for a great ride back after we got tired of high fiving.
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Awesome day of Meat fishing!
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Flint River Pirate
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Re: Apalach Grouper fishing 4/17/10

Post by Flint River Pirate »

Great trip Walt! Thanks for sharing!!!!!
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RHTFISH
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Re: Apalach Grouper fishing 4/17/10

Post by RHTFISH »

Great trip and report!

In my entire life I've never seen it that calm offshore! :smt010
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others.
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Re: Apalach Grouper fishing 4/17/10

Post by kneeknocker »

we should take our boats out there and try them out? HA good catch.
TEAM NO FLUKE!!!
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konrad
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Re: Apalach Grouper fishing 4/17/10

Post by konrad »

It's nice to hear someone caught some keeper grouper. I have fished out of St. Marks in 30 feet the last two weekends and only had one over 22 inches.
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Sir reel
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Re: Apalach Grouper fishing 4/17/10

Post by Sir reel »

Thanks for the report Walt. Glad everything came together for you. Is there any particular reason that no mention was made regarding the boat or who the captain was? Might be some folks interested in giving him some business. :thumbup:
"Good Judgement" comes from experience, ... and a lot of that..... results from "Bad Judgement".
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FishWithChris
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Re: Apalach Grouper fishing 4/17/10

Post by FishWithChris »

Heck of a trip!!! And good Lord that's a heck of a boat. beam on that thing is huge!!!


Talk to your "boat friend" and see if he's willing to put some info out here, as Sir Reel said, I'm sure there are some of us out here that are definitely willing to give them some business; :beer: :beer:
Three-fourths of the Earth's surface is water, and one-fourth is land. It is quite clear that the good Lord intended us to spend triple the amount of time fishing as taking care of the lawn. ~Chuck Clark

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Miller_Time
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Re: Apalach Grouper fishing 4/17/10

Post by Miller_Time »

I had a blast, it was soo nice to finally go out in slick seas. Most of our big fish were caught in 130'. We caught very few shorts and had to throw back several 26"-30" gags. Of course we also threw back many keeper snapper. The operation is out of Apalach and their called Boss Charters, the boats name is Miss Emily, she's 45' of comfort, just not the fastest boat in the sea. Great Time!
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Tidedancer
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Re: Apalach Grouper fishing 4/17/10

Post by Tidedancer »

WOW! That was some report and photos. It's good to see dem big ole gags come over the side :thumbup:
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djw79
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Re: Apalach Grouper fishing 4/17/10

Post by djw79 »

Man, What an awesome report! I'm so ready to get out there and hopefully get my chance at some keeper grouper.
Rudderman
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Re: Apalach Grouper fishing 4/17/10

Post by Rudderman »

I can't imagine how much beer Millertime can get in a boat that big. Great report.
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