Fishing in SoWal Whenever We Can

The title is way too accurate for this fishin' report. The weather has not been conducive to fishing in the Gulf much at all the past couple of months.

The Gulf calmed down from Issac last weekend and the water cleared up pretty quick. I took my wife and youngest daughter out Saturday afternoon to put out a couple bait traps and do a quick "fish check".

We were out about an hour and half total. The girls caught some fine Vermilion Snappers (my wife's favorite Snapper) some Triggers, a bunch of Pinks, the always-around Red Snappers, and we had a big Grouper on, that pulled off. Alright, plenty of fish, let's run some charters.

Always happy to catch what you love to eat!

Sunday morning was beautiful. My folks got on the boat and the first words they said were, " we promised the women we were coming back with Groupers".

Okay - nothing like putting the pressure on from the get go. Turned out my folks had done this before and did a good with the big bites. They landed a limit of Black (Gag) Groupers , two fine Black Snappers, two (and a half) Red Groupers, several small sharks, and a bunch of short AJ's on a four hour trip.

I was proud to have a great catch, but was a little underwhelmed when on the way in they said, "Yeah, we can't believe we got all these Groupers; we were just expecting two or three".

Proud of a Grouper Limit!

Sunday Afternoon I had two dads and three kids who had never been before and "just wanted to catch something" on a two hour trip. They had a blast catching LOTS of Pinks, a couple Vermillions and Triggers, and a Bull Shark in the 200-plus pound class. I didn't think they could have been any happier if we had landed a box of Wahoos and Tunas!

Monday started blowing again and we came in early as it started to bounce up. We still had four nice Groupers and an Amberine, as well as releasing some short Groupers. Then it started raining... (AGAIN) and rained some more....and then it went ahead and poured.

My dock on Eastern Lake after the last good rain.

I seem to have gotten really good at having to cancel fishing trips due to weather this year. Friday was bright, sunny, and fairly light winds but with the remnants of Issac having gone back into the Gulf and reforming into another low, the surf was just a little too big to safely cross the bar. Saturday morning was the same and raining again!

While it has not been the perfect summer, we have managed to avoid any major storms all year. I guess a few inconveniences are worth not having to deal with the aftermath of a "real " storm.

The forecast for today is north winds and sunshine. I won't hold my breath, but I'll have the boat ready and be on the beach at daylight!