Vortex Charters Fishing Report
12-03-2003
Captain Chuck MacIntyre
Vortex Charters of Tampa Bay
www.vortexcharters.com
When Thanksgiving rolls around every year, I get the same group that are dreaming of a Gag Grouper dinner; not Turkey!
The Brooks gang, made up of Kenny, Brian, Jimmy, Nick, and Denny mark the last Thursday of November each year with some impressive catches of Grouper.
This year, they started the day off with Kenny bringing in a 16-pound Gag on his first bait down. He needed a little help from Capt. Chuck as that fish had a bead on his ledge nearly pulling Kenny out of the boat! Stepsons Brian and Jimmy chimed in with a couple of legal-sized Gags themselves, making it a family affair. These fish were chewing on frozen sardines cut in half in 55 feet of water 15 miles from shore.
Every once in a while, we would send a pinfish or grunt to his demise, losing a bunch of rigs to fish too big to muscle in.
Employing a Shad suspended by a balloon 100 yards behind the boat, we wondered why we had no takers after the rod sat in its’ holder for over an hour.
As soon as this discussion ended, the silence was broken by a 25-pound King that skyrocketed out of the water, Shad showing from both sides of his mouth. Within seconds, we had all lines in and were chasing this behemoth that seemed to dump line off the reel at will. Twenty-five minutes later, brother-in-law Denny was hoisting his first King for pictures.
Good Fishin’ to ya!
Capt. Chuck MacIntyre
www.vortexcharters.com
