The weather was awesome, the water was still tanic looking. 1st stop, for pinfish, and i had the pinfishking with me so this is going to be easy. We catch 75 pinfish in about 6 ft in about an hr and hit the trail. Run 18 miles, south ( cant get you any closer ) about 40 ft. 1st drop, keeper,and in about 10 minutes we had 6 keepers , 4 reds and 2 gags, threw back about 8 red keepers and maybe 12 shorts or so. Off still south to 50ft, 2nd stop, added 3 more gags, threw back about 6 more red keepers and lots of shorts, moved about a mile and caught another gag and threw back some more red keepers, left em biting, decided to run to 70 ft and check some AJ's and red snapper. We caught 10 or so short AJs couldn't find a keeper, had one eaten by a goliath , that didn't last long, the 100 lb line held up about 30 seconds. We moved to another spot about 1/2 mile , threw out the anchor, caught grunts, triggers and finally got a nice ARS about 8 lbs. About the time i'm fighting another keeper red grouper on light tackle a boat comes speeding towards us. Remember by now we are 35 miles offshore. Its the man ( game warden ) 2 of em. They pull along side , one just hopes in the boat. I accuse him of stealing our spot and he kinda chuckles so i'm feeling good about getting out light. It is a federal check by fwc guys. They get my name and birthdate for their report. He checks all our fish, nothing has to be measured. He is impressed by the still kicking ARS, says its kinda shallow for him , we say we got lucky and he says yeah right. He checks most compartments and all coolers, we're good. Just before he leaves i give him a towel to wipe his hand on and he says let me check your liscense, Pinfishking passes, I can't find mine, what
, and to my surprise,he says no problem, have a good one and he sails off to the next boat who looked to be in some trouble from the time spent aboard. Oh well, that was the 1st time for that, so we head in, hit the ramp about 5 or so, are you kidding another on on the dock, we explain about already being checked, he knows we are telling the truth by the questions he asked but he checks our fish anyway just in case we added any. We pass again. He was really nice too, didn't check anything else. Just in case you wanted to know i did ask him about measuring fish and his statement was, I'll measure your fish any way you like , any way you did, he said you can squeeze the tail any way you like. Just some info. Anyway, total for the day was , 10 grouper, 6 gags, 4 reds, 2 triggers, 1 big seabass, 1 8lb ARS, nothing size wise to brag about and 2 checks by the man. I gotta give em a
, they were about the nicest game wardens i've ever ran into, seemed more than fair. By the way , we threw back about 18 keeper grouper, lets just say , they are biting. frank
Appreciate you sharing the FWC experience. We need to hear good stuff about them when ever possible.
