This week’s trip started off a little uncertain due to the tropical disturbance which was in the Gulf. Fortunately, the buoyweather forecast indicated that the seas would lay down Friday evening. We adjusted our departure time to Friday afternoon and prepared for the big event. This trip had John Billings, Sean and Darrell Bezecny, Larry Fincher, and Richard Gaido (pretending to be a deckhand).
As we headed out the Jettys, the wind was a tad sporty, and the 3′ chop was kicking up some spray. Once we got away from the strong current flowing out the jettys, the seas got nice, and by 40Nm offshore it began to get glassy. We enjoyed chicken fried steaks and mashed potatoes with the boat feeling like it was sitting at the dock.
We arrived at the Picket Fence area well before daylight, and on the second spot we tested we were greeted by quad hookups and 8 nice snapper. Not wanting to blow out our snapper limit in the first spot, we moved to a spot I had picked out from the global mapper software. The bite was a tad slower… all we got there were triple hookups, but bottom held a nice assortment of grouper up to 12 lbs mixed in with one 15lb sow snapper. Once again our surly deckhand tried to make it look like he caught the big grouper. Darrell even picked up a couple of fish on one jig.
As usual, Larry tried to show how he always catches the biggest fish with this nice sow snapper. Sean had a different approach… he actually did catch the biggest, a 28lb warsaw.
We continued finding spots with double and triple hookups. After moving a little deeper we started bringing in the nice yellowedge grouper, like this 20 pounder. We also found a couple of large red porgies.
It was not yet noon, but we were starting to reach our limit on both snapper and grouper, so we reserved a couple of slots in the cooler and headed off for the deep drop spots. The bite was a little slow at the first location, and we only managed to put a tilefish, yellowedge, and 2 snowy’s into the Frigid Rigid. We also landed a small leopard shark and 3′ eel.
The crew was starting to miss the triple and quadruple hookups from earlier in the day, so I move a little further northeast and let them drop on some of the 600′ humps that I located late last season.
On the very first drop, Darrell had a very strong fish hookup. This one was stripping drag and fighting a little like an AJ for the entire 600′ elevator ride. I bet Darrell buys an electric reel after this excursion.
What Darrell brought over the gunnel was the largest Barrelfish ever on the Possession Limit, and even the largest in Texas. The 25Lb 6Oz Barrelfish is now the State Record, beating the previous rod and reel record by about 8 lbs. Had this fish been caught last season, it would also have set a new IGFA World record, unfortunately a 28lb barrelfish caught in Florida last September now holds that title.
Not to be outdone, the rest of the crew quit complaining about how tired they were from cranking 600′ every time I said I wanted to reposition the boat. Instead John Billings managed to pick up an unusual tilefish… identified by the TP&W biologist as a blackline tilefish. You guessed it, this 6Lb 3Oz fish has no listing in the state record books, so becomes the second potential state record catch on the Possession Limit this season.
Now Richard G is beginning to feel a little out of place. He only has one state record and it was caught using the electric reel. So Rick gets out some tiny little hooks, drops them to the bottom and pulls in the third potential state record for the trip. Look close, its only a 5Oz, 8 3/8″ long Wenchman Snapper, but should earn him a rod and reel record, along with the reputation of being a child fish predator.
At least he actually caught the fish he is holding for a change
These 600 foot humps were holding lots of fish. At one spot we dropped three lines and came up with double grouper on the first two lines and a tilefish on the third. Even the old captain came off the bridge and dropped a twin tail grub to the bottom. In short order I was hooked up to a 20lb Barrelfish. Had I dropped 20 minutes earlier this would have been a new state record as well.
By now we were limited out on grouper, but had reserved 3 slots for more red snapper… after a run back to some of our original hotspots from the morning bite, we finished out our limit of snapper and grouper in just a couple of drops.
As the sun dropped below the horizon, we deployed the swordfish baits for a couple of hours, but no hookups this time. About 11pm we pointed the bow towards the Galveston Jettys and headed back in.
As usual we had a great trip catching fish, the snapper ceviche was just like Scott used to make, I yelled a lot at the deckhands, it took forever to clean the fish so we could drink margaritas, and I had a nice nap after everybody headed back to Houston.
These three potential state records, if accepted, will bring the total caught on the Possession Limit up to 26. Looks like I need to target at least 30 state records by the end of the season.
I did have one bit of disappointing news when I returned home. We went through a lot of the glo twin tail scampi jigs on this trip so I ordered a batch of 50 from the manufacturer, Uncle Josh (Scampi was bought by Kalin who was bought by Uncle Josh). This afternoon I got a call from the manufacturer. They informed me that the mold for this size jig was worn out and they were no longer going to manufacture it. Whats on the shelves now is all there will ever be. I will be buying up all I can ASAP.
The forecast for next week is looking good… next report in 7 days.
… Capt. Stout