So I head out to do some lake fishing down in the sunshine state. The first thing I noticed is one of the few other anglers has been away. I literally went 12 for 12 and called it a day.
I'd like to thank you all for supporting this site and I wish you all a happy and healthy New Year.
Forum/General Discussion/Happy New Year! The end of a challenging year ends with 12 large mouth on 12 casts
Happy New Year! The end of a challenging year ends with 12 large mouth on 12 casts
1,357 views·10 replies·by george
Thanks all. I'll report back on next week's grouper trip. The season opened yesterday so it should be good. 50 miles to reach 100 foot depths. I'll never get over that.And I thought it was bad off LI's South Shore. Head "Downeast", you can cast into 100' depths...
Good luck!!!
AdmiralOriginal Crew21,694 postsSince 2018
So as promised, here's my report on the grouper trip from hell. I get six guys together to charter a boat for grouper. The boat I used last year was booked so I booked someone that came recommended. One or two of the guys were experienced, but the others were lightweights.
I check the wind it's showing 25 k NE but the Capt says we're sailing. "they've been hitting real good". I warned everyone about the seas but they all wanted to go. When we get to the boat I was the only one with own tackle and the Capt says " put it back in the car, you'll be using our tackle . . . It's maybe for grouper." So before we leave the dock I'm having words with the owner, who was not running the boat, and I wanted to use my rod and reel. But I really didn't want to ruin the trip for everyone so I dropped it. Keep in mind this is a 2k trip with the tip.
So we head out into a steady 4-6 minimum seas headed for a 3 hour run to get 60 of water. Within minutes a few guys were puking their guts out. They never wet a line the entire day. I see the mate take out a bag of frozen chopped up baits and he put them on the bait board.
We get to the first drop and the mate tells me it's going to be tough to get the grouper to bite in that wind. Just what I wanted to hear. Well he was right after 6 hours on 6 foot seas no grouper.
The thing that really pissed me off was his rods and reels sucked. Not one rod on the boat had all of its guides. In the meantime my beautiful setup was sitting in the truck.
We ended the day with a variety of fish that weighed about a pound. There were more bones than meat by the time they were done cutting up the fish.
Now the owner comes over to get paid and one of the guys wanted a few fish gutted and his response was " were not doing that its either filleted or nothing". Now that the trip was over I went to pay him and I asked him to please gut the 4 fish for the guy. "I already told you we don't that."
He truly was a miserable person and it was the worst charter experience of my life.
For the record it was A and B charters in Naples. A real scumbag.
I think I'll stick to my calm beautiful lake. Its been on fire this year
I check the wind it's showing 25 k NE but the Capt says we're sailing. "they've been hitting real good". I warned everyone about the seas but they all wanted to go. When we get to the boat I was the only one with own tackle and the Capt says " put it back in the car, you'll be using our tackle . . . It's maybe for grouper." So before we leave the dock I'm having words with the owner, who was not running the boat, and I wanted to use my rod and reel. But I really didn't want to ruin the trip for everyone so I dropped it. Keep in mind this is a 2k trip with the tip.
So we head out into a steady 4-6 minimum seas headed for a 3 hour run to get 60 of water. Within minutes a few guys were puking their guts out. They never wet a line the entire day. I see the mate take out a bag of frozen chopped up baits and he put them on the bait board.
We get to the first drop and the mate tells me it's going to be tough to get the grouper to bite in that wind. Just what I wanted to hear. Well he was right after 6 hours on 6 foot seas no grouper.
The thing that really pissed me off was his rods and reels sucked. Not one rod on the boat had all of its guides. In the meantime my beautiful setup was sitting in the truck.
We ended the day with a variety of fish that weighed about a pound. There were more bones than meat by the time they were done cutting up the fish.
Now the owner comes over to get paid and one of the guys wanted a few fish gutted and his response was " were not doing that its either filleted or nothing". Now that the trip was over I went to pay him and I asked him to please gut the 4 fish for the guy. "I already told you we don't that."
He truly was a miserable person and it was the worst charter experience of my life.
For the record it was A and B charters in Naples. A real scumbag.
I think I'll stick to my calm beautiful lake. Its been on fire this year
CommodoreOriginal Crew5,158 postsSince 2018
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