It's Summer Time and the Fishin' is Easy
May 25, 2012 by Larry Pentel
Calm seas, light breezes and a good bite have made for some easy fishing the past ten days. Plenty of Kings, a good Amberjack on the 4 hour trips and a healthy dose of Red Grouper around have made for some fantastic boards. While there was a couple afternoons where the only big fish we could get to bite were the Gag Groupers and Red Snappers they made for some great catch and release photo opps. Always plenty of "fish sandwich" size critters around to fill up the cooler as well.
Here are a few pics from the past week.
This mornings group-- A big thunderhead kept us right on the beach for a couple hours-- so we "had" to troll and catch all those fish....
Been some hard battles to land the big Jacks ! The fellow that caught the big Black Snapper didn't know what he had until everyone on the beach was oohhing and aahhing over it....
I took it easy on 'em the next day and went for the lesser jacks-- They pull even harder pound for pound it seems though- and we all know how Kings fight !
A limit of kings and some Big Red Grouper. These guys were stoked!
Another limit of Kings and 5 Grouper!-- The gal caught 3 of 'em of course...and 2 Gags we released.
Another great fisher gal-- she got the Tuna-as well as a Jack. She has fished with me for years with her family. Her new husband is gonna have to learn quick to keep up with her!
This big fellow (1,000#+) was swimming right on the 1st bar as we came in the other afternoon. One of my anglers grabbed my mask and another just dove in to "swim with the manatee" as the perfect end to a great 3 hr fishing trip.
Jacks, Kings.. and even a Fkounder !
Plenty of bait on the beach the past few days so the Kings should stay around for a while. The Red Grouper are still doing the On/off thing-- you can get 'em to bite on any rock you go to 1 morning and the next you can't find a one.. The vermillion Snapper have thinned out- moved back to deeper water along with the droves of small triggers that had been around. Still some nice Big Triggers here (look at the pics) to make for some bonus fish. The big news of course is Red Snapper season set to open June 1st-- Hopefully we can thin down a few of those 20+ pounders that are making it so hard to soak a Red Grouper bait next week........
Get out there and catch something!