Reds catching reds, 4/9/11 Carrabelle
Posted: April 11th, 2011, 11:55 am
The Celestial Crab is accustomed to having a redhead or two aboard seeing that Celeste is one and Larry is the #2 of the Two Reds and a Crab fishing team, but Saturday a buddy of mine, Todd, from work joined us and he made redhead # 3, so I was totally outnumbered! As outnumbered as I was I can’t say I’d replace them for a different crew (certainly not my bride) as they are all seasoned salt water people with some fish catching skills!
We wanted to poke around the island a little early on to see if the pompano or a redfish were home and ended up with Larry popping of all things a keeper sheepshead off the beach! We had some bait schools nearby getting busted so I put a Clarks spoon behind the boat as we headed south and quickly put a few Spanish in the box before heading to my black sea bass (box filler) hole.
This is normally a great spot to catch some grunts and sea bass for the meat haul. We occasionally catch some short grouper and a keeper once in a awhile, and today was that magical day apparently on what we call the ”P”. We managed some huge sea bass then a few short gags and reds then someone catches a just short; 19 15/16 in, red and I said maybe the ole P will give up a keeper today after all! Well she did, two I think and a decent kingfish to boot! Seeing the fish turned on I decided to go deep and get some more red grouper on a hot spot in federal waters and try for gag again here later on the way in!
:fishing: We hit two other spots, close together both on fire from our first drops with short grouper, (HUGE) black sea bass and grunts. It seemed the big ones needed enticing from the shorts to get going. We easily vented and released 20 shorts and put a total of 5 nice reds like this in the box.
Went back north to get my keeper gag and “I” did; Captain catches too! So we ran in with a healthy box of grouper, some of the largest black sea bass ever caught on our boat, (one 17”) a nice king, a few Spainards and sheep to go with, one happy crew and an elated Captain.
I can’t thank Todd ANDERSON enough for making trips like this possible, the Lord for my wife, family and friends, and for the sea for giving up her bounty to us this fine day.
We wanted to poke around the island a little early on to see if the pompano or a redfish were home and ended up with Larry popping of all things a keeper sheepshead off the beach! We had some bait schools nearby getting busted so I put a Clarks spoon behind the boat as we headed south and quickly put a few Spanish in the box before heading to my black sea bass (box filler) hole.
This is normally a great spot to catch some grunts and sea bass for the meat haul. We occasionally catch some short grouper and a keeper once in a awhile, and today was that magical day apparently on what we call the ”P”. We managed some huge sea bass then a few short gags and reds then someone catches a just short; 19 15/16 in, red and I said maybe the ole P will give up a keeper today after all! Well she did, two I think and a decent kingfish to boot! Seeing the fish turned on I decided to go deep and get some more red grouper on a hot spot in federal waters and try for gag again here later on the way in!
:fishing: We hit two other spots, close together both on fire from our first drops with short grouper, (HUGE) black sea bass and grunts. It seemed the big ones needed enticing from the shorts to get going. We easily vented and released 20 shorts and put a total of 5 nice reds like this in the box.
Went back north to get my keeper gag and “I” did; Captain catches too! So we ran in with a healthy box of grouper, some of the largest black sea bass ever caught on our boat, (one 17”) a nice king, a few Spainards and sheep to go with, one happy crew and an elated Captain.
I can’t thank Todd ANDERSON enough for making trips like this possible, the Lord for my wife, family and friends, and for the sea for giving up her bounty to us this fine day.
