Fished with a fine group of well tuned athletes all of us members of the Naples fishing club.
We fished under the "command" of Admiral Ray Russell on the Perfect Match out of Naples bay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Admiral Russell is on the left in the blue shirt!!! please salute)
The Admiral was well "organized" for the voyage, boat was fueled, bait on board etc. We went west out of Gordon's pass slight north. We ultimately got out 33 miles fishing in almost 80 ft. of water. The Gulf was like a skating rink today, just perfect, high temp in the low 80's, very slight breeze, I think So. east??? We used frozen bait initially but also fished for live bait. No real difference between live and dead bait today coming up with pin fish, grunts, other bait fish!!!!!!!!!!!!
Every spot we tried up until LATE in the day, the grouper bite was VERY aggressive, unfortunate we had LOTS of shorts, many that you would swear smaller than the bait they attached. On the first drop I got a red grouper a quarter of an inch short!!!!!!!! The Admiral got a gag 1 inch short lots of action. Circle hooks worked great, MOST of the fish that went back were hooked right on the side lip which is great little damage to the fish!!!!!
We did a combination of drifting and anchoring with about the same results.
We ended the day with 2 keeper red grouper, I got one Kevin Wright got the other he deserved it he is headed back to Min. on Sunday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We had a great day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! One of the most beautiful day I have ever spent on the water!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! At little more perpetration by the Admiral, an additional "organization" could have resulted in limits for all???????
(This is the kind of day we could have gone out into the Gulf with the "GREAT ONE" from De in the famous "Blue boat".) inside De joke!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Note the conditions on the ride in? Basically no wind?????? Actually if we had a little wind during the day we would have done better. It was tough to cover much ground of drift with no wind and VERY difficult to get tight on the anchor with these condition.
GREAT DAY, no EXCUSSES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Stay tuned going out with the Admiral again on Sunday, if my Wife doesn't kill me which is a very good possibility. The Admiral promised he would conduct services on the Gulf so God can forgive me for not going to Church???????????????????????????????
