Heading out in the morning!

[GoodOyster]

Going out with my dad, one of my cousins and his girlfriend and try to get a few grouper and such. Hope I can keep my eyes in check, 'cause my cousin's gf ain't hard to look at! We're gonna try and stay within the 9-mile state waters and catch some good gags, but we do plan to go a bit further to a wreck and check for permit, cobia, and amberjacks. I'm sure we'll sit on a couple of snapper/grunt spots as well. I'm hoping we can do some trolling for kings, too. Wouldn't mind a couple of smokers in the box! This is a great time of year, lots of stuff moving around as the water warms. It'll be a good day, one way or the other!

[Sangster]

PICS or we won't believe a word you say in your fishing report!

and don't forget the pics of the fish too.

[GoodOyster]

I was thinking about that, and realized I haven't seen my camera since we moved back the first of Feb! I can take pics with my phone, but they generally suck. Dad usually has a camera on the boat, though, so I should be able to get some kind of evidence!

[bodysnatcher]

Good luck.

[lamehawk]

goodluck

[Triple Creek Reaper]

How did it go? I am heading down to Boca Grande next weekend I hope the bite is turning on!

[GoodOyster]

Well, I was hoping that the camera girl would have sent me pictures by now, but she hasn't. We did have a decent trip - 2 keeper gags, one keeper red grouper, 4 nice mangroves, a nice triggerfish, and a dozen or so grunts.

We got started late thanks to a couple taking their time to show up, and then without all the pinfish they were supposed to be catching for us. So all we had was 10 dozen shrimp and some frozen squid. On the way out we used a sabiki rig and some small hooks with squid and caught a few grass grunts, some sand perch and a couple of other small fish, about 20 total. Went to the first spot, just about as far you can go and still call it state waters, about 9 miles. About my 3rd or 4th shrimp I put down I hooked a nice grunt and put it in th box. You could feel something stealing your bait, and I told them I bet it was triggerfish. So I put on some squid and sure enough, brought up a 12" trigger. Caught several short grouper and triggers after that, just enough every now and then to make us hesitate about changing spots.

Finally we decided to move to another spot about 1/4 mile southeast, and first bait down my dad brings in a 16" mangrove. We caught 3 more nice grovers, 2 keeper gags, a couple decent grunts, and the keeper trigger, and at least a dozen grouper in the 15-18" class we had to return to the deep. There were a couple of big remoras, about 4" long, hanging around the boat. We caught them a couple times, they were after anything that hit the water. We got broke off at least a dozen times, some of them like something took a razor to the line above the leader. We ended up spending too much time hoping the first two spots would pan out that we didn't make it to the wreck, plus having to start an hour late and having to spend an hour or so catching bait took its toll.

We finally headed in to spot about 7 miles from Stump Pass, maybe 5 miles offshore. It's always good for a few grunts and snappers, and for a turtle sighting or two. We've also caught several hog snapper there, but no such luck yesterday. Ended up with a few grunts, and one nice fat 22" red grouper. And we saw a turtle!

One highlight of the trip was when we were at the first spot, we'd been there about an hour, and Cory, my cousin's girlfriend, noticed a little bird perched on top of the snack cooler on the seat up in the cuddy cabin area. It would flit around from the edge of the sink, to the cooler, down in to the cabin, etc. She went up into the seating area and it came and landed on her head, then her shoulder, etc. like it had known her forever and thought nothing of us. We don't know for sure if it stowed away and came out with us, or if it was flying around 9 miles offshore and needed a rest! It stayed with us for a couple of hours, visited each of us at some point, usually landing on our head or shoulder. We gave it some potato chip crumbs and small pieces of bread, it drank some water and at some point just disappeared on us! None of us recognized it, kind of a cross between a wren and a hummingbird, with yellow breast and greyish-brown wings/body. Wasn't but 2-3" long, never made a sound. Hope it made it back to shore or found another boat to visit!

Good day overall, brought home a few meals worth of fillets and spent some good time with my dad. He'll be 73 next month, and is pretty healthy and active, but we just never know what's gonna happen, so I really enjoy any chance I get to do stuff with him.

I'll get some pics on here as soon as Cory sends them to me!

[bodysnatcher]

Sounds like a good time. Next time you want some pinfish you just need to invite the right person.

[DONY1]

Sounds like a good trip. I'm gonna try to sneak out of work early today and hit some poons.

[GoodOyster]

Sounds like a good time. Next time you want some pinfish you just need to invite the right person.

If they had called and said they were gonna be late and not have any pins, I could have caught 2 dozen off my dad's dock before they got there!