Never give up trip-Snapper-Gags-AJs
Capt. Darel Carter
February 29, 2016
Boca Grande - Saltwater Fishing Report
12-2-15
Today I had planed to target big off shore Mangrove snapper then move to Gag grouper. I advised Nordy to meet me at my house at 6 am. Well that did not work,I called Nordy from Walmart at 5:40 am because I had to buy a trailer tire. My tire had a hole at the edge of the sidewall. I was not going to take the chance and plug it. The tire was changed and we were on our way. I backed the boat down to the ramp and turned the key – nothing but a buzz. I pulled the boat out and knew it was some sort of power issue. Back to the house, I went for tools and trouble shooting. I found that both batteries were good and the battery switch was broken internally.
Nordy tried to leave and plan for another day. I told him that we are not done that easy. In addition, in the past when you have so many problems in the beginning of a trip it normally means you are going to have a good day. I installed a new switch; we caught bait and were headed off shore by 11 am.
We set up and immediately started catching mangrove snapper over 12 inches. We used fresh dead green backs to catch the largest snapper. The large one was 21.5" long and had seven that were 18" long. We limited out with 10 each (federal waters).
At times, we could see some large amber jacks come up with the snapper. On two drops, I caught a 15lb and a 10 lb AJ. I caught a large Blue runner (17") and put him down about 20' on my 4/0 reel foe AJ's. Four AJ's came up and chased the blue runner around in a circle just under the boat. One large AJ caught the bait and ran off with it. I set the hook and it was a swing and a miss. The bait was so big he did not get it all the way down his mouth. I reeled in and quickly put on a live pinfish. The AJ's were gone. I dropped it all the way down and reeled it back up to about 20' down. The bait lasted about 20 seconds. I hooked on to a 30lb 41.5" Amberjack.
Nordy hooked two Goliath grouper using 3" greenbacks while snapper fishing on the bottom. And of course he could not turn the on 20lb class spinning rod. When Nordy changed from bottom fishing to free lining dead bait he did not use fluorocarbon leader. I advised him to change and he immediately hooked up to one of the 3 lb snapper. He also caught a 22.5" gag grouper on a "dead stick" using a live pinfish. The term dead stick relates to a rod sitting in a rod holder with no one holding it.
We started at about 1140 am and were headed back in at 2:30 pm. What a stellar day. Remember I always say, "Never give up".
Give me a call at 941-456-0415 Capt. Carter for a fishing trip.
Boca Grande Fishing Forecast:
Hookedoncharters.com was on fire after a slow start. These snapper and AJs were hungry.
Target Species:
Snook, Trout, Tarpon, Redfish, Sharks, Snapper, Cobia.
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