Bprice
Well-known member
Well I'm back in one piece ladies and gentleman, and the time off and relaxation was exactly what I needed!!!
We booked a trip with Pelican Adventures Charter aboard "The Answer II."
We met our Captain Dave and First Mate Clyde at 5:30 a.m. to get ready for an 8 hour trip. Our first run was 25 miles, so we started out. Once we got out of the bay we began trolling squid jigs and a couple of vibrating plugs. They had been catching some Kings and Blackfin as of late, so we hoped for the best.
About 30 minutes into the ride, the squid reel started singing, and we all scream FISH ON!!! I was up to bat first, and after a few strong runs I hollered that this was a big King. Unfortunately I was wrong, it was a 24 inch Bonito and a monster at that, we kept it for strip bait. The reels fell silent as we made it to our first spot.
We began catching a variety of fish from Red Snapper, Vermilion Snapper, White Snapper, Triggerfish, and Rubies at first, not many keepers, and things got slower. So Dave decided to haul out 10 more miles and get into 140 ft of water.
This was money and the action was on... CooperJD and my buddy Randy lost a couple really nice Groupers to the reefs while everyone else was pulling up snapper after snapper. Then we got into some sharks, and man are they fun... we were catching mainly smaller Bull Sharks, we probably boated 10-15, and they are some MEAN DUDES!!! I also caught my first Warsaw Grouper, a decent 18 incher.
We saw some fish running in the distance so we decided to freeline some pinfish... this was the ticket and in no time the reels started singing again! FISH ON! Ended up boating a Fine King, around 38 inches. Several minutes later we put another 32 incher in the boat as well.... my stomach was very happy at that time, because I love some Mackeral.
Then things got exciting, we saw a fin in the distance, and it went after our marker buoy. It was a no lie, 8-10 ft HAMMERHEAD, and it was hungry, picking up our non-keepers left and right. So we rigged up shark rig and butterflied the Bonito I caught earlier, and set her out... in no time the reel started singing again!!! We were all anxious and nervous.... I wish I had more to the story, but we missed the hammered on that initial hit, and he wouldn't come back to play.
We lost track of time after just loading the boat, once again mostly with non-keeper Red Snapper, but fun none the less, and we have plenty of food for a good meat haul.
After all the fish were cleaned it was 9:00 p.m. and we were totally exhausted.
What a wonderful day it was, we saw tons and tons of Spotted and Bottlenose Dolphins, and they were playing around us all day... we also saw two giant sea turtles, and several water spouts.
If anyone would like to charter out of Destin, I recommend Pelican Charters, they are great and super friendly.
Sorry for the long post, but it was worth it I think!
We booked a trip with Pelican Adventures Charter aboard "The Answer II."
We met our Captain Dave and First Mate Clyde at 5:30 a.m. to get ready for an 8 hour trip. Our first run was 25 miles, so we started out. Once we got out of the bay we began trolling squid jigs and a couple of vibrating plugs. They had been catching some Kings and Blackfin as of late, so we hoped for the best.
About 30 minutes into the ride, the squid reel started singing, and we all scream FISH ON!!! I was up to bat first, and after a few strong runs I hollered that this was a big King. Unfortunately I was wrong, it was a 24 inch Bonito and a monster at that, we kept it for strip bait. The reels fell silent as we made it to our first spot.
We began catching a variety of fish from Red Snapper, Vermilion Snapper, White Snapper, Triggerfish, and Rubies at first, not many keepers, and things got slower. So Dave decided to haul out 10 more miles and get into 140 ft of water.
This was money and the action was on... CooperJD and my buddy Randy lost a couple really nice Groupers to the reefs while everyone else was pulling up snapper after snapper. Then we got into some sharks, and man are they fun... we were catching mainly smaller Bull Sharks, we probably boated 10-15, and they are some MEAN DUDES!!! I also caught my first Warsaw Grouper, a decent 18 incher.
We saw some fish running in the distance so we decided to freeline some pinfish... this was the ticket and in no time the reels started singing again! FISH ON! Ended up boating a Fine King, around 38 inches. Several minutes later we put another 32 incher in the boat as well.... my stomach was very happy at that time, because I love some Mackeral.
Then things got exciting, we saw a fin in the distance, and it went after our marker buoy. It was a no lie, 8-10 ft HAMMERHEAD, and it was hungry, picking up our non-keepers left and right. So we rigged up shark rig and butterflied the Bonito I caught earlier, and set her out... in no time the reel started singing again!!! We were all anxious and nervous.... I wish I had more to the story, but we missed the hammered on that initial hit, and he wouldn't come back to play.
We lost track of time after just loading the boat, once again mostly with non-keeper Red Snapper, but fun none the less, and we have plenty of food for a good meat haul.
After all the fish were cleaned it was 9:00 p.m. and we were totally exhausted.
What a wonderful day it was, we saw tons and tons of Spotted and Bottlenose Dolphins, and they were playing around us all day... we also saw two giant sea turtles, and several water spouts.
If anyone would like to charter out of Destin, I recommend Pelican Charters, they are great and super friendly.
Sorry for the long post, but it was worth it I think!
