This is a report I posted on a local Florida forum. Figured I'd post it here as well.
On Monday Matthew and I were joined by a friend of mine and his son Cody. Cody loves to fish but had never been offshore past around 5 miles. We left the dock around 7:00 AM with the first stop being to Sabiki up some bait.
After getting what we needed we headed approximately 15 miles out and anchored up on a spot I’ve fished other times of the year but never in the summer. The bottom was alive but the spot just was not producing, the boat movement and literally no action was making Cody wish he stayed on shore. So we continued out another 10 miles to some of my Grouper spots with the hope of bending some fishing rods and getting Cody on some fish. Cody was the first to hook up with a keeper Red Grouper and at that point he no longer thought about getting sick and was into it. He later added another keeper to the fish box.
Cody’s dad Brad also added to the days catch with a nice Red Grouper.
The fishing for Matthew was went somewhat different then he is typically use to. He was non-stop all day but did not put a keeper into the fish box. With our goal of heading back at 3:00 coming near Matthew took the last piece of cut Key West Grunt and put it down. What resulted was the final bottom fish of the day and a 23” Red Grouper. For the day we keep 5 Red Grouper from 21” to 25” and some various Snapper.
While running from spot to spot (most were within ¾ of a mile from each other) we trolled a MirrOlure L29MR from my Medium Light GLoomis, 3000 Daiwa SOL with 14 lb braid and 20 lb leader. While doing this we picked up three Bonita which the boys really enjoyed fighting on light tackle.
After Matthew boated the final keeper Grouper we tossed out the lure and started to troll eastward while cleaning the boat for the run back. Within about 3 minutes the fishing rod when off and I just assumed it was another Bonita. It was Cody’s turn and Matthew was on the wheel. The boys worked together fighting the fish while I continued to put things away and clean up, never even looking up until Matthew mention that the fish was not doing the classic Tuna circle. Soon thereafter we got a good look at the fish and we were all excited to see that it was not another Bonita. What resulted was a 27 lb King Mackerel (on the boca grip) and it was Cody’s largest fish to date and first ever Kingfish.
Some of the Grouper caught.
Cody’s first ever Kingfish with help from Matthew’s spectacular driving.
Just another perfect day on the water with my son and some great friends…life is good!
Jeff
Just Another Florida Report
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