Captn C
Well-Known Member
Lucrecia and I got an invite from a buddy ,Weston, to hit some State water snapper area that I fish. He informed us this was a mandatory fishing trip…ordered by his wife who is "stuck" in Switzerland. Their 23' SeaCat has been in dry dock for the last year and they have just got the engines broke in.
Weston put in "Lucky Cat" in my slip Saturday while he did some work on his trailer, so we met at our place Sunday morning. The crew, Weston and Richard, met us just after day break and we were off.
Seas were nice with a bit more fog than I expected, and we made a short run to the first spot. Lucrecia was the first to hookup on a nice Snapper on the first drift. The next snapper was monster. I thought it was going to be big grouper, but when we saw color is was red! A nice sow 15 to 20 lbs come to the surface, but the hook failed and snapped off just as I reached for her with the gaff. Pricey lure with cheap hooks, but I'll leave that alone!
The next drift produced a pair on nice snaps for Lucrecia and I. JWT and Richard were starting to feel the way Lucrecia shows no mercy when it comes to putting fish in the boat. That first spot yielded 5 nice keepers before the bit slowed. The next few spots only gave up nice keeper size fish with a few Bull Reds mixed in. We put three slot reds in the box from 23" to 28". I was surprise to see a red that small in the gulf.
I think the fish shut down around 11am with the full moon because I marked a lot of fish on a couple spots that we barely lost a bait at. Even Lucrecia couldn't get one to bite. We decided to go back to the original spot to see if we could finish off our limit.
The bite was still slow and Weston added Black Drum to the box and one White Trout before Lucrecia got a rod and started fishing again. She had taken a break at the last two spots and for about 45 minutes of our stop at this spot. Well she found fish again, so we changed up tactics and it wasn't long before our last Snapper was in the box.
I am sure you are wondering what she was doing…I will say she also put a Bonito in the boat along with a couple nice snapper!
Here is Lucrecia and I with the pair we caught on one drift:
Here we are back the dock:
Here is "dock shot" of the total catch:
Weston put in "Lucky Cat" in my slip Saturday while he did some work on his trailer, so we met at our place Sunday morning. The crew, Weston and Richard, met us just after day break and we were off.
Seas were nice with a bit more fog than I expected, and we made a short run to the first spot. Lucrecia was the first to hookup on a nice Snapper on the first drift. The next snapper was monster. I thought it was going to be big grouper, but when we saw color is was red! A nice sow 15 to 20 lbs come to the surface, but the hook failed and snapped off just as I reached for her with the gaff. Pricey lure with cheap hooks, but I'll leave that alone!
The next drift produced a pair on nice snaps for Lucrecia and I. JWT and Richard were starting to feel the way Lucrecia shows no mercy when it comes to putting fish in the boat. That first spot yielded 5 nice keepers before the bit slowed. The next few spots only gave up nice keeper size fish with a few Bull Reds mixed in. We put three slot reds in the box from 23" to 28". I was surprise to see a red that small in the gulf.
I think the fish shut down around 11am with the full moon because I marked a lot of fish on a couple spots that we barely lost a bait at. Even Lucrecia couldn't get one to bite. We decided to go back to the original spot to see if we could finish off our limit.
The bite was still slow and Weston added Black Drum to the box and one White Trout before Lucrecia got a rod and started fishing again. She had taken a break at the last two spots and for about 45 minutes of our stop at this spot. Well she found fish again, so we changed up tactics and it wasn't long before our last Snapper was in the box.
I am sure you are wondering what she was doing…I will say she also put a Bonito in the boat along with a couple nice snapper!
Here is Lucrecia and I with the pair we caught on one drift:
Here we are back the dock:
Here is "dock shot" of the total catch:
