[Finfeatherfur]

Well, it is off to the races to fill the freezer for the endangered species (red snapper) before it closes in 47 days! We hit the gulf yesterday in the OutFoxed from FWC, boy I still hate that landing! As usual, the muddy water was in close and we headed south to find pretty water. On board was the boat owner, his wife and 2 boys, and my 4 boys since my bride had to work. First stop for live bait (insurance) found the tide ripping at 20 miles out and the water stained. Loaded the livewell w/ live hardtails and headed south.

The weather man was calling for 1-3's then calming to 1-2's after lunch. He lied again! It was every bit of 3-5's, w/ occassional 6's and before long, I have one chumming over the side. Now, my kids are looking at me with the deer in the headlights look, worried we would have to go in. I tell them to sit tight and we will get our snapper limit before going in. I pointed the bow south and continued on. That boat sure is a fine machine and it handled the water so well, but the seas were still kicked up with the wind. Before long, I have the boat owner, his wife, and both their kids chumming. Nice, this is going to be a short day!

I talk them into hanging in there and before long we are on the upside current of a platform I fish on a regular basis and the fish were there waiting. We had a few nice ones mixed in the bag, but for the most part, I decided to get the limit over with ASAP since they were not doing so well. One of the boys hooked into a tug boat, that took us for a spin and lasted about 35 mins in fight. Little guy gave it a good run, but in the end - I had to make the decision to cut the leader since it was a 10' bull shark. That thing was not getting any closer to us than it did, especially with the crew I had on board. We moved to another platform close by and I pitched a 4" white bucktail jig to a 25# ling and hooked up, handing the rod to one of the boys. At this point I am tellimg myself that everyone will be feeling better and want to fish some more. Only problem was the fact they were still chumming, with nothing left to give the sea!

Tons of grass was out there and I told them it was laying down and the grass would pile up in the currents where we could do some trolling. I moved to the other side of the platform and was marking some toads at 15', so I decided to give them something different. We wrapped around, dropped some Islanders and trolled right by the platform. First pass was an immediate hook up that screamed for half a 30W spool. Got a gaff in him and it was a 50# King. Next pass and another hook up for a 20# Cobia to make 2 in the box.

So now it's a little past lunch and the crew is finally starting to come around, after putting 18 snapper 2 ling, and a king in the boat. Seas are subsiding and I asked what they wanted to do. They were game for more fishing so I went searching for grass patches. We found them and I put out a spread, and first pass, hooked up to a small dolphin with another following it to the boat. Could not get the 2nd one, so we got the first one in the boat and moved on. Had one small wahoo come completely out the water for a pink Islander, only to have him hit the water w/o the bait. That was impressive!!!! Then we got into the kings like their was no tomorrow! I hate them things. Stopped at one big patch to play with the chicken dolphin, but they were boat shy and would not cooperate. We had a good trip and filled the box, but I'm not so sure the crew will be ready by Saturday!

Here is a picture of my deckhand and 16 y/o son Holden with his biggest snapper to date. He does a lot for me and makes me proud on the water. Kid knows his way around a boat, that's for sure. He helped the little ones and did a ton of work for me. When we hooked the dolphin, he was not letting that rod out of his hands so he also boated his first dolphin yesterday! Fresh cerviche' tonight!!!!