" Holy Sow"
This past friday I had JW Smith and his brother in-law and mother in-law for a day of off shore fishing. The weather was a little "sporty" as we'd say, wind 13 knts, gusting to 18 out of the south.
We first stopped on the " Brevard Reef", about 10 miles SE of the Port. A few Kingfish were caught there the day before, and I thought it would be a good place to start. We had only 1 strike on the down rigger bait after a while, and the water quality wasn't that great. I decided to go out to Pelican Flats since the bite there had been good lately.
As I put out the first Pogy it got eaten before I had a chance to get it on the down rigger. A nice 12 lb Kingfish came to gaff a couple of minutes later. I was able to send the next bait down to 40 feet before it got hit too. It put out 2 more lines, one as a long line way back and the third one just about thirty feet behind the boat.
Again, the downrigger bait got struck and the fish really took off. It just kept going and I thought it may be a big Jack Crevelle . In the back of my mind I was thinking maybe a Wahoo, but it wasn't running with great speed. It had taken about 150 yds of the 20lb test line off the reel and it was still moving off away from us. I had JW move to the front of the boat and started to go after the fish and recover some line.
This was his first trip on the ocean and he followed my instructions on fighting the fish to a tee. He was able to recover the line as the fish started to slow down and I got the gaff and came forward to stick the fish. He was working the fish up to the surface when I saw some color, but not the color I expected. It was a reddish brown and I thought maybe it was a red Grouper, Wrong. It was a Monster Red Snapper. He caught this Sow on 20lb test line and # 3 wire kingfish rig.
Back at Sunrise marina, we weighed it in at a whopping 30lb. 2oz. This was truly a catch of a lifetime. Good job JW.
