Jared, his father Joe and friend Scott wanted to do a little deep sea fishing while in town from Kentucky. My boat was getting serviced so a quick phone call to another Sea Hunt owner (Marshal Buscemi) and we were locked in for 5:30 am. A short weather delay set us back a bit but none the less, we hit the water at around 6:45 AM. Marshal already had his boat stocked to the brim with gear and ice so after a quick stop to the pin-fish traps, we headed South. First stop was in about 80 foot of water. Marshal gave the go ahead as he maneuvered the boat over the wreck below and everyone dropped down. Seconds later there were 4 fish boatside! Snapper of course but a nice start to what would turn out to be a really successful day (by the way, these snapper were HUGE - check out the pictures in the trophy room). 
After the first stop, we worked our way South, tacking from one spot to the next and before we knew it, we had 6 Scamp Grouper in the box and were kissing 300' of water. It was at this depth, that Joe locked into a nice surprise.We were all bottom fishing when all of a sudden I hear drag ripping off of Joe's reel (not very common when bottom fishing with 6/0 reel locked down to the max). My first thought was "shark" but after several minutes of Joe fighting, I knew this was something different. Everyone rushed over to see what was on the other end.Several moments later and little help from his comrades, and Joe had himself a BEAUTIFUL Blackfin Tuna! Nice job! We mixed it up a bit throughout the day; switching from cut bait to squid and live pin-fish. All in all, we caught over 40 fish. Here is the tally: 
  • Blackfin Tuna -1
  • Scamp Grouper - 10 (6 keepers)
  • Gag Grouper 1
  • Black Grouper 2 (1 keeper)
  • White Snapper 5
  • Vermilion Snapper 1
  • Lane Snapper 1
  • Red Snapper 20+
  • Sharks - 2
    * Special thanks to Trevor for providing 1st mate service during the entire 11 hour trip!