triumphrick
Lieutenant Commander
- Joined
- Jun 26, 2008
- Messages
- 1,737
Took some friends out in the Gulf from Hernando Beach Florida. Here is my buddies take on the action....
What a great time on the water today!
The day started at 4:00am Eastern time with the Alarm going off. Woke up, made some cheesy hotel coffee and got ready. My body was telling me the 4 hours of sleep I had wasn?t enough and that it was still on California time..
About 5AM ? Sprockets? (Jeff) picked me up from the hotel and we proceeded to make the journey from Orland to Masaryktown to meet ?triumphrick? (Rick).. Try pronoucing that one! The 79 mile drive took about an hour and 15 minutes or so.. What was disturbing was seeing the temperature outside on the dash of the car.. It was 37*!!! Is the really Florida???
We arrived at Ricks and the boat was ready to go! What a great boat!
We loaded our gear and piled in Ricks truck and made our way down to the marina and launched the boat. It was a blistering 53 at the ramp when we arrived. Thank god for those warm gulf waters. If not for those, we probably would have needed an Ice Breaker!
What a cool little launch. No crowds, no wait and plenty of parking. We made our way through the canal and out to ?unopen, open ocean?..
One think that really amazed me was the way you get out to deeper water (5?).. A fast run though the channel which is basically a slolem course through poles 20? wide along the edge little rock outcrop islands. And you do this for miles.
It was like a high speed bobsled course.
Once out into deeper water.. 5? or so, we stopped to make some bait. After a short sabiki stop, we ran out 30+ miles to the (not so) deep 50? sea .. There was a solid 2-3? chop with real confused swells and some bigger rollers mixed in. It was a washing machine. It made the second half of the run a bit slower. We arrived at ?the spot? around 10AM and dropped anchor. The fun began the instant the bait hit the bottom. It was a constant bite on Red Grouper, Gag Grouper and Grunts. We even got a trigger, and little puffer.
Rick with the one keeper sized grouper of the day.
Some of the grunt that were kept for Ricks wife to give to people she knew.
We fished squid, live bait and cut bait. The grouper were all decent sized with a few that were barely short of the legal limit. After a couple hours there, the bite slowed so we pulled anchor. We made our way in to about 10 miles out where it was a deep 12?. We anchored once again. It was a slow pick on more grouper, grunts and a few surprises thrown in. One of which was a cat fish that Jeff caught and the other was the red fish that I caught..
Many thanks to Rick for taking us out and showing us a great time! Also, Jeff for joining us and picking me up. Dinner was great too!
I had a great time and it was great meeting both of you! Looking forward to seeing both of you again soon!
Scott
__________________
Glacier Bay 2680 Coastal
What a great time on the water today!
The day started at 4:00am Eastern time with the Alarm going off. Woke up, made some cheesy hotel coffee and got ready. My body was telling me the 4 hours of sleep I had wasn?t enough and that it was still on California time..
About 5AM ? Sprockets? (Jeff) picked me up from the hotel and we proceeded to make the journey from Orland to Masaryktown to meet ?triumphrick? (Rick).. Try pronoucing that one! The 79 mile drive took about an hour and 15 minutes or so.. What was disturbing was seeing the temperature outside on the dash of the car.. It was 37*!!! Is the really Florida???
We arrived at Ricks and the boat was ready to go! What a great boat!
We loaded our gear and piled in Ricks truck and made our way down to the marina and launched the boat. It was a blistering 53 at the ramp when we arrived. Thank god for those warm gulf waters. If not for those, we probably would have needed an Ice Breaker!
What a cool little launch. No crowds, no wait and plenty of parking. We made our way through the canal and out to ?unopen, open ocean?..
One think that really amazed me was the way you get out to deeper water (5?).. A fast run though the channel which is basically a slolem course through poles 20? wide along the edge little rock outcrop islands. And you do this for miles.
It was like a high speed bobsled course.
Once out into deeper water.. 5? or so, we stopped to make some bait. After a short sabiki stop, we ran out 30+ miles to the (not so) deep 50? sea .. There was a solid 2-3? chop with real confused swells and some bigger rollers mixed in. It was a washing machine. It made the second half of the run a bit slower. We arrived at ?the spot? around 10AM and dropped anchor. The fun began the instant the bait hit the bottom. It was a constant bite on Red Grouper, Gag Grouper and Grunts. We even got a trigger, and little puffer.
Rick with the one keeper sized grouper of the day.
Some of the grunt that were kept for Ricks wife to give to people she knew.
We fished squid, live bait and cut bait. The grouper were all decent sized with a few that were barely short of the legal limit. After a couple hours there, the bite slowed so we pulled anchor. We made our way in to about 10 miles out where it was a deep 12?. We anchored once again. It was a slow pick on more grouper, grunts and a few surprises thrown in. One of which was a cat fish that Jeff caught and the other was the red fish that I caught..
Many thanks to Rick for taking us out and showing us a great time! Also, Jeff for joining us and picking me up. Dinner was great too!
I had a great time and it was great meeting both of you! Looking forward to seeing both of you again soon!
Scott
__________________
Glacier Bay 2680 Coastal
