Florida Keys Day 8 Old Ladies Fishing

Sundays fishing trip was one for the ages......the old ladies that is!

We headed out 16 miles into the Gulf of Mexico following the directions on the gps to a sunken houseboat out in the middle of nowhere. Being out that far from land and its only 9 feet deep, but the fish are stacked up there big time!

Even when its windy outside, the shallow gulf is much more protected and less wavy than the Atlantic. Anyhow, my mom and my sister's mother in law Barb had the fishing trip of a lifetime catching huge cero and spanish mackeral, monster mangrove snapper, tons of grouper, jacks, blue runners, a huge stingray, and another mystery fish. Here is that mystery fish:


We really wanted to catch a shark so Larry gave us this big barracuda his buddy caught the day before to cut up and use for bait:


Then we stopped by our pinfish trap and unloaded all the pinfish into our livewell:

Next we pulled into Captain Hooks Marina to fuel up and pick up some more chum blocks, ice, and fuel. This is the place to go when boating and fishing in the middle keys!

Finally on to the Gulf for some afternoon fishing! First pic is of Jared helping his mom put another monster mangrove into the box!

Barb holding up one of many mackeral. We catch the mackeral using free lined pinfish and also cast gotcha fishing lures when a school of them comes by.

We catch lots of gag groupers, but they are always just an inch or two short to keep. Still fun to catch though!

Tony holding up a pair of big mangroves


Barb caught the biggest mangrove snapper I have ever seen. This thing was a beast! It bit on a huge free lined pinfish and gave barb all of the battle she could handle:


At the end of the day we had a bunch of fish to clean!


We got back from fishing, got all cleaned up, ate some dinner, and then got everyone together to have our own church service. Just sat around the livingroom and talked about more important things in life than fish and recreation and football, etc. We are thankful for fishing and recreation and even football, but they definitely aren't the focal point of living life to the fullest!