Fishing On The Gulf

Among my friends in Florida there is a man who loves fishing as much as I do. Carl lives nearby and has several boats but for going out on the Gulf he owns a 30 ft. twin hull fishing boat. It is very stable and makes a good platform for fishing. We play golf and when he heard I was only down for a few weeks he invited me out on the opening day of Gag Grouper fishing. The size for keepers was 22 inches and you are entitled to keep two. Red Grouper are available as well with the same restrictions.

We had a perfect weather forecast with light winds and clear sky. Carl was going to go out about 40 miles. At seven in the morning the sun rose red and the clear skies made a beautiful setting as we made our way through the barrier islands and reached open sea. As we moved off shore the wind freshened and we faced a four foot chop.Carl decided to start fishing about 32 miles out. As the wind and current made it difficult to anchor we decided to drift.

Carl gave me one of his grouper rods and on the first try in 65 feet of water I caught a keeper grouper. From there on we caught fish after fish. Forty one to be exact but we were limited to two each. Although it was rough water we never noticed as the fishing was special. Comments from the group indicated that they never caught grouper that big in water so shallow. We had a perfect day which ended too soon as we had our limit. Carl had us reel in and we made for shore with the water becoming less rough so we were comfortable and talked of the fish we caught and the big ones that got away.

As we arrived at Carl's dock we cleaned up the boat as Carl did an expert job of cleaning the fish. He divided the fish equally and for my part I had 9 beautiful fillets. We departed with fish in hand and a whole lot of good memories. Theresa and I had several meals of some of the best eating fish anywhere. I cannot think of a better way of sharing time with friends than fishing.