Got up with the sun and was catching bait at first light.
The day was perfect. A bit cloudy, which prevented the sun from baking us and just enough breeze to keep us cool; still winds were light enough to allow the ocean to remain calm with just a nice easy swell to remind you that you're in the ocean... not a lake.
The Albury Bros 23 did well in the ocean as we ran it out St Lucie inlet to our designated spot which was about 10 miles away. Sweet boat!
The action started quickly and, with Will's guidance, I landed the first fish, a nice Mutton Snapper, good eats. Then followed that up with a good sized Trigger Fish.... also good eats.
My philosophy is, catch what you can eat, then quit. But Will had yet to catch a fish so we kept dropping bait.
Things had slowed a bit when all of a sudden Will's second rod started bending like it was hung on the reef. But it wasn't the reef. He grapped the rod and and started cranking. We had no idea what was on the end of the line but we new it was big. I thought shark, Will thought turtle. We were both wrong.
As you can see from the picture it was a huge fish. A Goliath Grouper (also known as a Jewfish in politically incorrect circles... not sure why it's not PC to call it a Jewfish?)
Will was both extremely excited and exhausted after fighting this monster for 15 minutes or so. He said it was his largest fish ever. Will is a very tall fellow and that fish is almost as big as he is. We think it may be close to 200 pounds.
Since it's a protected species in the US, we let it go after we took a few pictures. The fish swam away a bit slowly -but surely- back to the depths from whence it came.
After that we ate the lunch Mel had packed for us , laughed about how excited we got, and then caught a couple of Vermilion Snapper. All of this by 12:30. We cranked up the Albury and ran home.
A good day for fishin'.
We've had fresh fish for the last few days. Tonight Trigger Fish is on the menu. Recipe
Should be good.
Adios,
Istaboa
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