Oh my goodness! Day 2 of my Florida Keys fishing trip easily ranks on my top 5 best days ever fishing list.
The boat we were fishing on was a 42 foot commercial crab and lobster fishing boat. I wish I would have taken some pics of this boat, because it was just awesome! The back end was just wide open fishing space probably 15 feet wide and 25 feet long! John, Mike, Ryan P, Bob, Jimmy, Ryan, Larry, and the captain Raymond were my fishing partners today. We arrived at the boat dock at 5 am, loaded up on pinfish for bait and headed out to the gulf.
We had a 2 hour boat ride to get to the fishing zone! Not a cloud in the sky, 75 degrees, and the ocean was flat calm all day. Even without fishing a bit, I was having a good time just being out on the water hanging out! We started eating fried chicken about 10 am, gorged on lots of snacks and drank coolers full of various beverages! The fishing started out very slow, but no one really cared. We picked up a handful of bluefish, lane snappers, and blue runners at our first stop. Initially we were targeting cobia, but they were not around.
On our way to our second fishing spot we pulled up nest to a handful of Raymond's 6000 stone crab traps scattered out in the middle of nowheresville and pulled in some really nice stone crabs. It was really cool to see the process! Kind of like the deadliest catch tv show, only in the tropics.
We struck out completely at our second fishing spot. Didnt even drop a bait down, because we never could find the wreck, must of blown away in a storm??? We then drove about 5 miles further and hit a pretty good wreck that was holding quite a few fish. John and I were using cut pieces of bait and were catching some smaller sized lane snappers when Ryan hooked up with a goliath grouper using a live pinfish. It took him about 15 minutes to bring this giant up to the boat. We had to leave the fish in the water because they are a protected species. The fish we estimated at well over 110 lbs!!!
It didnt take John and I long to switch over to live pinfish for bait, but it was Ryan who hooked up with another GIANT fish just a few minutes later. This fish he fought for about 20 minutes before the hook finally pulled loose just about 15 feet below the boat. This goliath would have gone 200+ lbs. I landed a beautiful 20 lb black grouper at this spot before the fish quit biting and we moved on to another secret spot.
The boat we were fishing on was a 42 foot commercial crab and lobster fishing boat. I wish I would have taken some pics of this boat, because it was just awesome! The back end was just wide open fishing space probably 15 feet wide and 25 feet long! John, Mike, Ryan P, Bob, Jimmy, Ryan, Larry, and the captain Raymond were my fishing partners today. We arrived at the boat dock at 5 am, loaded up on pinfish for bait and headed out to the gulf.
We had a 2 hour boat ride to get to the fishing zone! Not a cloud in the sky, 75 degrees, and the ocean was flat calm all day. Even without fishing a bit, I was having a good time just being out on the water hanging out! We started eating fried chicken about 10 am, gorged on lots of snacks and drank coolers full of various beverages! The fishing started out very slow, but no one really cared. We picked up a handful of bluefish, lane snappers, and blue runners at our first stop. Initially we were targeting cobia, but they were not around.
On our way to our second fishing spot we pulled up nest to a handful of Raymond's 6000 stone crab traps scattered out in the middle of nowheresville and pulled in some really nice stone crabs. It was really cool to see the process! Kind of like the deadliest catch tv show, only in the tropics.
We struck out completely at our second fishing spot. Didnt even drop a bait down, because we never could find the wreck, must of blown away in a storm??? We then drove about 5 miles further and hit a pretty good wreck that was holding quite a few fish. John and I were using cut pieces of bait and were catching some smaller sized lane snappers when Ryan hooked up with a goliath grouper using a live pinfish. It took him about 15 minutes to bring this giant up to the boat. We had to leave the fish in the water because they are a protected species. The fish we estimated at well over 110 lbs!!!
It didnt take John and I long to switch over to live pinfish for bait, but it was Ryan who hooked up with another GIANT fish just a few minutes later. This fish he fought for about 20 minutes before the hook finally pulled loose just about 15 feet below the boat. This goliath would have gone 200+ lbs. I landed a beautiful 20 lb black grouper at this spot before the fish quit biting and we moved on to another secret spot.
This next spot was about 5 miles further, and it was the motherload of all fishing spots! There were 3 different wrecks all within about 500 yards of each other and the grouper were stacked in thick! I was using 2 lb fish for bait and I caught a nice 30 lb grouper my first time down. My second drop I was using a 3 lb live fish for bait and I hooked into a goliath grouper of epic proportions!!! I was using a rod and reel so big that I could barely lift it up let alone fish with it. When this fish hit, it felt like I was using ultralight gear. I couldnt tighten the drag down tight enough to keep goliath from going straight down to his hole. After about a 2 minute battle he made it back down to the wreck and the cable I was using for fishing line eventually wore down and broke. Just feeling the strength of this fish was an unbelievable, unforgettable experience. Undoubtedly I will be back to tangle with a goliath!
We only needed to fish at this spot for about an hour to fill up the cooler with grouper from 20-30 lbs each. Ryan also landed a 70 lb goliath that felt like a midget compared to his first two. Captain Raymond said he only fishes this particular spot once per year. We could have sat there all day long catching huge fish, but its not smart or ethical to wipe out a spot and we didnt need to catch or keep any more fish. I saw on his gps screen that this spot was labeled "super wreck"
We had an awesome, relaxing and smooth 2.5 hour boat ride back to the dock for pictures and fish cleaning. Along the way back we were spotting schools of cobia basking in the sun, but didnt have any live bait left and on this particular day, nobody really cared!
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