Nearly done in by bananas on the boat
Posted: May 31st, 2026, 8:00 pm
Carrabelle--On Friday May 29, 2026, I went offshore fishing with a group of friends including a guy who always insists on bringing bananas on the boat. When he brings bananas, you never know how things will turn out.
Anyway, after launching the boat into the Carrabelle River, we headed to the grass flats on the north side of Dog Island in hopes of catching pinfish. We need pinfish because some say that’s what the red snapper want. We couldn’t see the grass on the flats due to the runoff from the recent rains or maybe it was just the curse of the banana.
After we wasted too much time catching only eight pins, we gave up and ran offshore to try to catch bait with Sabiki rigs. At an artificial reef, we failed to find bait. At a random spot in 45’, we caught lots of bait of all kinds—cigar minnows, sandperch, sardines, and more. The crew was having a blast catching three or four baits at a time, and they didn’t want to stop. “Guys, put away the bait rods, it’s time to catch big fish.”
As usual, I wanted to go deep, but the unsettled weather over the past 2 weeks convinced me to stay north of S Tower, closer to safety. As we were running, I noticed that the fish shows on the sonar were pretty much nonexistent. When we reached the first spot, we discovered the likely reason: there was almost no current. Live baits on a 1 oz. knocker rig went straight down to the bottom when the currents typically keep the baits high in the water column.
I think we caught some small fish including red grouper, gag grouper, and a small red snapper, but nothing worth bragging about. It was disappointing to get nearly skunked at a spot that was my best spot 2 years ago.
The first spot was the only spot where I dropped the GoPro. The pictures, as you can see were not disappointing.
To view more of my pictures from the trip, visit my instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/p/DY-V1C8Goh ... 9nMmxkdA==
My fishing strategy and my strategy for dealing with boredom are the same—move if nothing is happening. After a lousy experience at the first spot, we moved from spot to spot in the direction of the boat ramp. A mile away, we stopped at a spot I named TimBigARS. On this trip, it delivered another 33” big ARS to the cooler but nothing else. For those of you who don’t know, ARS stands for American Red Snapper. A few more miles away, we stopped at my favorite spot from last year and got skunked. I kept running my sonar over many of my spots but nothing on the sonar made me want to stop to fish.
Eventually, we ran over a spot I call the Helicopter hole which I discovered many years ago. Little appeared on the sonar as we passed over it, but the spot was consistently productive for red snapper for about 2 years.
After sharing the embarrassing story of how the Helicopter hole got its name, my fishing buddy insisted that we fish it. I’m glad we stopped because we caught six of our red grouper there. A spot that was a red snapper spot a few years ago has become a good red grouper hole.
Moving further north, we finally saw a show of fish on the sonar which looked like a red snapper tree extending 15’ upwards from the bottom. Nothing happened at first when we dropped baits down. Eventually, we discovered only small baits were going to work because the school on sonar was a school of lane snapper. We brought up two. One was longer than 18” and the other was longer than 16”.
We ended the day with a good pile of fish, but not the pile of red snapper that I had hoped to catch. One of my friends said that we didn’t catch our limit of snapper because we didn’t go out far enough. Another friend said that we went out too far. I think it was the bananas.
Here’s the fish pile:
Anyway, after launching the boat into the Carrabelle River, we headed to the grass flats on the north side of Dog Island in hopes of catching pinfish. We need pinfish because some say that’s what the red snapper want. We couldn’t see the grass on the flats due to the runoff from the recent rains or maybe it was just the curse of the banana.
After we wasted too much time catching only eight pins, we gave up and ran offshore to try to catch bait with Sabiki rigs. At an artificial reef, we failed to find bait. At a random spot in 45’, we caught lots of bait of all kinds—cigar minnows, sandperch, sardines, and more. The crew was having a blast catching three or four baits at a time, and they didn’t want to stop. “Guys, put away the bait rods, it’s time to catch big fish.”
As usual, I wanted to go deep, but the unsettled weather over the past 2 weeks convinced me to stay north of S Tower, closer to safety. As we were running, I noticed that the fish shows on the sonar were pretty much nonexistent. When we reached the first spot, we discovered the likely reason: there was almost no current. Live baits on a 1 oz. knocker rig went straight down to the bottom when the currents typically keep the baits high in the water column.
I think we caught some small fish including red grouper, gag grouper, and a small red snapper, but nothing worth bragging about. It was disappointing to get nearly skunked at a spot that was my best spot 2 years ago.
The first spot was the only spot where I dropped the GoPro. The pictures, as you can see were not disappointing.
To view more of my pictures from the trip, visit my instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/p/DY-V1C8Goh ... 9nMmxkdA==
My fishing strategy and my strategy for dealing with boredom are the same—move if nothing is happening. After a lousy experience at the first spot, we moved from spot to spot in the direction of the boat ramp. A mile away, we stopped at a spot I named TimBigARS. On this trip, it delivered another 33” big ARS to the cooler but nothing else. For those of you who don’t know, ARS stands for American Red Snapper. A few more miles away, we stopped at my favorite spot from last year and got skunked. I kept running my sonar over many of my spots but nothing on the sonar made me want to stop to fish.
Eventually, we ran over a spot I call the Helicopter hole which I discovered many years ago. Little appeared on the sonar as we passed over it, but the spot was consistently productive for red snapper for about 2 years.
After sharing the embarrassing story of how the Helicopter hole got its name, my fishing buddy insisted that we fish it. I’m glad we stopped because we caught six of our red grouper there. A spot that was a red snapper spot a few years ago has become a good red grouper hole.
Moving further north, we finally saw a show of fish on the sonar which looked like a red snapper tree extending 15’ upwards from the bottom. Nothing happened at first when we dropped baits down. Eventually, we discovered only small baits were going to work because the school on sonar was a school of lane snapper. We brought up two. One was longer than 18” and the other was longer than 16”.
We ended the day with a good pile of fish, but not the pile of red snapper that I had hoped to catch. One of my friends said that we didn’t catch our limit of snapper because we didn’t go out far enough. Another friend said that we went out too far. I think it was the bananas.
Here’s the fish pile:
