Barry and Cameron joined us on the water recently during Barry's Holiday break from college. Our first goal today was a goliath grouper. Barry had been unsuccessful at previous attempts and we wanted to make sure this trip was a success. We hooked Barry up to a nice live jack for bait and it was not longer than a few mins he had a bite. Right away we knew it was a good sized fish running and taking drag. Even breaking the 80lb billfisher rod during the fight, but the 600lb mono held up and in the end this fish was boat side and Barry couldn't of been happier. A quick picture before release.
As the day went on we decided to make a quick run offshore to see if the cobia were still biting on the reef. We were pretty suprised to see what moved in, BIG Gag Grouper. The season is closed and these fish know it. Cameron and barry caught over 30 gag ranging from 15-34 inches in size. We tagged two for Grey Fish Tag Research. I wonder where they will travel and if they will get eaten when the season opens up for 2016.
One of the last hookup's of the evening came from a spinner shark. Cameron hooked this shark on a freelined bait off the back of the boat. This shark was hooked on light line, 60lb braid to a 65lb mono leader. Not ideal for landing a shark but cameron got it done anyway with another nice tag and release.