CaptJoeVerdino
Member
- Joined
- Jan 14, 2009
- Messages
- 8
CaptJoeVerdino, Fort Myers World Record Black Grouper, Grouper, Snapper, Amberjack, 12-20-2008
We started out with a rock solid plan to run out to some numbers my mate scored from a diver. We knew they were converted from loran and had little hope the numbers were correct. Then the morning of the trip we get the original loran numbers the conversions were made from. I happen to have a loran on the boat and I also sent 2 of the converted numbers to another captain and asked if he had numbers in the same area. He told me he had numbers there and one of the 2 was 100 ft from one of his number (he wasn't going to share what direction). Now hopes were high and thoughts of a boat load of big grouper and snapper raced through our heads.
We made the run out during daylight hours and spent hours scouting from number to number and each one was a blank. I tried the loran and the converted gps for abot 8-10 numbers and nothing at each spot. In our travels from spot to spot I did find 2 good marks and on each one I got hit by a big grouper. The first spot we lost the fish because I had hooked a porgy and the grouper hit that on the way up. The second spot the fish hit my bait and then I had 255 feet of pulling to do against a 22 pound gag. We kept searching figuring we could always return to our new found numbers after checking all the ones we were given. So we searched some more, found nothing and decided to return to one of the new spots. It was a nice 8 ft drop that showed plenty of fish earlier in the day. When we returned it didn't show a thing, just a blank drop not even bait. We dropped a few baits and after 1/2 hour of nothing we headed in to a wreck in 180 ft. This was almost 25 miles back toward home so off we went with heads low. All that planning, all the time and money invested and we had one fish.
At the wreck I anchored up and got a chum slick going and we fished for a few hours pulling up some nice mangrove snapper but nothing bigger. At about 1:30 am we passed out and woke at 4:30am for the morning bite. We tried for snapper but the wreck was swarmed by squid and bait fish so all we got was a squid.
Just before sun up I decided to move a few miles east to a small spot that had produced a few nice grouper in the past. We were on location just before the sun peaked over the horizon and dropped a few baits on a drift. I must have hit my fish on the head because it was on as I flipped the lever on the reel. Another nice gag was in the boat maybe 18 pounds, seconds later chris had one too. We pulled 3 gags and 2 reds with the smallest being 12 pounds. Then as the sun was just clearing the horizon the bite stopped. We still marked fish but they weren't feeding, so off to the next spot.
This spot is one that I think I'm the only one who knows about it. I know it's a wreck but that's all, I've never seen another boat within even two miles while out there. So we anchor and get chum going and we're already happy with our catch but had no idea of what was to come. We talked about how nice it would be to get a few more grouper to catch a limit. We also planned on a limit of yellowtail snapper, which are one of my favorites. The yellowtail came but not after losing about 15 in a row to AJ's. Then we landed a nice 50 lb AJ just because they were biting so well. We were talking about waht else we could catch since we were getting close to limits on our target species and I said a cobia would be a nice addition to the catch. Minutes later Chris is battling what we thought was another AJ. We soon found out it was a nice Cobia that picked up our pinfish from the bottom.
We were amazed at our luck and Chris kept fishing the bottom and managed a pair of gags in the 25 inch range. We now knew we could only catch 10 grouper and we were close to the limit, Chris said another gag and a scamp would be nice, I commented that I'd like to see a 50 lb carbo since I knew they were on the wreck but clients were never strong enough to pull one up. This is no fish story, the very next bait to the bottom Chris almost gets yanked over, and after about a ten minute fight I look over and see a shadow and say "Jewfish" and walk away. Then Chris says "Jewfish? I think you better look again" so I did and couldn't believe we had a 50+ lb Black grouper (carbo) floating boatside.
This was two fish in a row that I asked for and both times the kid delivered. We couldn't believe it and jokingly I said "you know I haven't had fresh tuna in a long time". and we both laughed thinking it would never happen. I guess the fishing gods have a sense of humor because minutes later I'm drifting a shrimp back in the chum slick and I hook a tuna, not an eater, but a bonito a.k.a. "little tunny". We got a good laugh and knew we had taken more than our fare share, beaten the odds, and were given everything we asked for, I put away the rods fired up the motor and pointed the bow home.
I think of this trip as "the reward" for all the planning, and the expense, and time, we didn't find the new fishing area we expected. Yet the results were better than we hoped to find so far from where we fish every day. As if the day wasn't good enough I remembered on the way in that the line class records are open for black grouper. So as an added bonus, world record catch #4 for this year is a 56.8 pound black grouper.
1/2 the catch (the bigger snapper are 20")
the other half
We started out with a rock solid plan to run out to some numbers my mate scored from a diver. We knew they were converted from loran and had little hope the numbers were correct. Then the morning of the trip we get the original loran numbers the conversions were made from. I happen to have a loran on the boat and I also sent 2 of the converted numbers to another captain and asked if he had numbers in the same area. He told me he had numbers there and one of the 2 was 100 ft from one of his number (he wasn't going to share what direction). Now hopes were high and thoughts of a boat load of big grouper and snapper raced through our heads.
We made the run out during daylight hours and spent hours scouting from number to number and each one was a blank. I tried the loran and the converted gps for abot 8-10 numbers and nothing at each spot. In our travels from spot to spot I did find 2 good marks and on each one I got hit by a big grouper. The first spot we lost the fish because I had hooked a porgy and the grouper hit that on the way up. The second spot the fish hit my bait and then I had 255 feet of pulling to do against a 22 pound gag. We kept searching figuring we could always return to our new found numbers after checking all the ones we were given. So we searched some more, found nothing and decided to return to one of the new spots. It was a nice 8 ft drop that showed plenty of fish earlier in the day. When we returned it didn't show a thing, just a blank drop not even bait. We dropped a few baits and after 1/2 hour of nothing we headed in to a wreck in 180 ft. This was almost 25 miles back toward home so off we went with heads low. All that planning, all the time and money invested and we had one fish.
At the wreck I anchored up and got a chum slick going and we fished for a few hours pulling up some nice mangrove snapper but nothing bigger. At about 1:30 am we passed out and woke at 4:30am for the morning bite. We tried for snapper but the wreck was swarmed by squid and bait fish so all we got was a squid.
Just before sun up I decided to move a few miles east to a small spot that had produced a few nice grouper in the past. We were on location just before the sun peaked over the horizon and dropped a few baits on a drift. I must have hit my fish on the head because it was on as I flipped the lever on the reel. Another nice gag was in the boat maybe 18 pounds, seconds later chris had one too. We pulled 3 gags and 2 reds with the smallest being 12 pounds. Then as the sun was just clearing the horizon the bite stopped. We still marked fish but they weren't feeding, so off to the next spot.
This spot is one that I think I'm the only one who knows about it. I know it's a wreck but that's all, I've never seen another boat within even two miles while out there. So we anchor and get chum going and we're already happy with our catch but had no idea of what was to come. We talked about how nice it would be to get a few more grouper to catch a limit. We also planned on a limit of yellowtail snapper, which are one of my favorites. The yellowtail came but not after losing about 15 in a row to AJ's. Then we landed a nice 50 lb AJ just because they were biting so well. We were talking about waht else we could catch since we were getting close to limits on our target species and I said a cobia would be a nice addition to the catch. Minutes later Chris is battling what we thought was another AJ. We soon found out it was a nice Cobia that picked up our pinfish from the bottom.
We were amazed at our luck and Chris kept fishing the bottom and managed a pair of gags in the 25 inch range. We now knew we could only catch 10 grouper and we were close to the limit, Chris said another gag and a scamp would be nice, I commented that I'd like to see a 50 lb carbo since I knew they were on the wreck but clients were never strong enough to pull one up. This is no fish story, the very next bait to the bottom Chris almost gets yanked over, and after about a ten minute fight I look over and see a shadow and say "Jewfish" and walk away. Then Chris says "Jewfish? I think you better look again" so I did and couldn't believe we had a 50+ lb Black grouper (carbo) floating boatside.
This was two fish in a row that I asked for and both times the kid delivered. We couldn't believe it and jokingly I said "you know I haven't had fresh tuna in a long time". and we both laughed thinking it would never happen. I guess the fishing gods have a sense of humor because minutes later I'm drifting a shrimp back in the chum slick and I hook a tuna, not an eater, but a bonito a.k.a. "little tunny". We got a good laugh and knew we had taken more than our fare share, beaten the odds, and were given everything we asked for, I put away the rods fired up the motor and pointed the bow home.
I think of this trip as "the reward" for all the planning, and the expense, and time, we didn't find the new fishing area we expected. Yet the results were better than we hoped to find so far from where we fish every day. As if the day wasn't good enough I remembered on the way in that the line class records are open for black grouper. So as an added bonus, world record catch #4 for this year is a 56.8 pound black grouper.
1/2 the catch (the bigger snapper are 20")
the other half
