Friday, February 24, 2012

Groupers, Snappers and Bonita


Today was absolutely the best! We lounged around the beach all morning. Had a light lunch of conch fritters at the SunSun. Then walked to Long Pier to find our charter boat. Billy, our captain, helped us aboard and explained where we would be going, about 7-10 miles south. The ride was fast, fun and bumpy on a center console 34' boat. Initially, we saw large schools of fish on Billy's radar. Nothing was caught and we moved about. Billy put chum in the water and tossed in small bait fish. He explained that the snapper would eventually feed up to the boat. We would see a yellow/golden flashing in the water. He baited a large rod with a 5" live fish. Bang! A catch. A fighting catch. He turned the reel over to Wayne and the struggle began. It was quiet a few minutes of struggles until a good sized bonita was hauled aboard. Not a fish we would keep to eat, though, and the search continued for dinner. We motored around a bit and settled again for a final try. Again, the large rod struck. This time Wayne was really working had and Billy was stumped as to what could be so big. Everyone was amazed and thrilled when a 70 lb. Goliath Grouper was brought in. A beautiful fish, they are protected and had to be returned. But, first, Billy had to puncture the air sac so the grouper could return to the bottom. He stabbed the stomach area, pushed on it, and one could hear the air expelling. Quite a sight. Now, I got a bite and lost it to another predator. Boy, was I upset about that! But eventually the golden school began approaching and we began to catch one yellow tail snapper after another. It brought back great memories of bass fishing with my Dad. Back at the dock, Billy cleaned the fish for us. The hotel cooked them that night and we dined on them with our toes in the sand on the beach. For more pictures visit my flicker