Another Day Fishing

An early call from my friend Karl brought an instant response,Yes. That was the answer to an invite to go fishing on the Gulf for grouper.It did not take me long to get my things together and drive to St. James City on the south end of Pine Island. We were off to a 40 mile sail to his favourite fishing reef in the Gulf of Mexico.

We had a few stops on the way to catch bait fish. These bait fish were eating size for grouper or man. We caught about 35 of these perch, trigger fish and an octopus. With these treasures we ran for one and a half hours to our reef. The weather was perfect with a two foot swell and the rhythmic motion of the boat put one of our fishermen asleep. I was too busy observing the wildlife. Flying fish soaring from one wave to another, a medium sized shark and a large turtle kept me occupied..

We decided to drift over the reef rather than anchoring as the water was about 100 feet deep and there were outcrops which could catch the anchor. Immediately we had luck when we dropped our bait over the reef. Grouper were plentiful  but many did not meet the size limit. They had to be 21 inches long and it seemed nearly all were 19 or 20 inches. There could be no cheating on the size as severe monetary penalty result for not meeting the standard.

We ended up catching over 30 grouper and had a few keepers but to make matters better we also had a variety of other good eating fish. My friend Karl has all the good places marked on his GPS and as were left for home we dropped in on a few. Having 10 hours of fun in the sun on the Gulf we decided to call it a day.

As we neared the shore the view was spectacular with the sun moving closer to the water line and making a specular sunset. Having arrived at the dock the real work began as Karl cleaned up the fish and we cleaned up the boat. Every part of the boat was washed with special soap to make it smell fresh and clean. The fish were divided into four piles and after final thanks I left for home.

I can never get a better day in Florida than fishing for grouper with friends on a perfect day.