Captain's Report - September/October, 2006

by Capt. Dave Mistretta

Last week, I took my 7 year old son and three of his friends fishing. The trip was celebrated as an "end of the summer/ back to school" excursion. All four boys were excited for weeks after hearing many big fish tales I would bring home each day from work. The trip was a complete success, with all 4 kids catching some of the biggest fish in their life.

We started the morning off with our daily ritual of catching live bait. A giant school of threadfin herring was found loitering around one of the bell buoys, outside Clearwater Pass. Some multi-hook type bait rigs were deployed and the kids were immediately hooked into 4 baits at a time. The bait catching session alone, had already made the youngsters morning. Once the live wells were full I informed them about the bigger fish we were about to catch. Almost immediately, the excitement level rose to an amusing level as all the children danced around the cockpit.

We ventured out 20 miles to a popular wreck and began to slowly troll our bounty of live bait. Almost immediately all four rods began screaming line out in all directions. Each one of the boys held on for dear life as giant fish pulled.

After about fifteen minutes my son David landed a five foot long barracuda. We took some quick photos then released the tired game fish. At about the same time, 7 year old Adam Doucette and 9 year old Logan Hinrich, brought to huge bonito to the boat. Nine year old Jake Meyers remained at the back of the boat, still fighting his monster fish. All the children watched as jake wrestled with all his might. Ten minutes later, a 25 pound king mackerel came over the gunwale. After a few more kings, bonito and barracuda, we took the boat home.

The entire ride back was consumed with repeated fish stories of each child's big catch. And their smiles seem to go from ear to ear for the entire day.

This week offshore fishing proved summer was nearing its end. Water temps remain in the upper 80's even 40 miles out and the hot sun feels brutal after a few hours of direct exposure, but there still have been some dramatic changes below.

We started to catch grouper in the shallower depths of 55 to 65 feet of water. The numbers of keepers were nothing to brag about, but it was a lot more productive than this entire year. Many undersized red and gag grouper accompanied the keeper fish. Key West grunts and other reef fish also joined in making each stop quite active. These fish were not present in these depths 2 months ago, proving that the fall migration has already started. By October we should see some decent numbers of bottom fish in as close as 40 feet of water.

The red tide obviously had negative effects on many of our limestone bottom, leaving areas void of life for months. This has all started to change in a positive way. New budding growth on many of the reefs has been witnessed, showing a major rebound from last year.

Our trip on Sunday produced three keeper grouper, two keeper scamp and a few nice mangrove snapper, working depths of 58 to 68 feet. A couple of sharks also taunted us as bottom lines were deployed.

Another trip produced 5 keeper gags off the first stop in 69 feet of water. Live bait worked the best, but still requires a bit of work. We have bee drifting along the edges of sand and hard bottom, reeling up numerous squirrel fish and a few sardines before bottom fishing.

Tuesday night we took advantage of the full moon action. Thirty four mangrove snapper were brought up in a matter of a few hours. Two of the fish were over 7 pounds. As soon as the sun went down and the incoming tide started to move, the action began. A giant school of goggle eyes swam up to the transom, eager to eat all the hooks on our sabiki rigs. These great baits will often show up at night, around any illumination. Water depths of 100 feet or more is where you will often find them. As soon as the goggle eyes were sent to the bottom a giant mangrove snapper would attack. They were one of the best snapper baits we ever tried.

Captain's Report - September/October, 2006

by Capt. Dave Mistretta

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