Sundance

Headed out the Pensacola Pass around 8am with my 2 neighbors. Seas 1-1.5 which is great for this time of the year. The plan hit the edge and see what we could drag up from the bottom. The ride out was not bad but heading into the seas which meansthe ride home with following seas should be a piece of cake.

Hit the edges around 9am, started pullinng up some lane and white snapper (only 1 mingo). Mark had a helluva hit on his rig, made the rod bow into a nice "U" shape. After a few minutes of fighting he pulls up a Lesser Amberjack, nice one but not quite legal so back he goes. Then Jonas gets a big hit, probably a grouper but it got back into its hole could we could not get it up and the rig finally broke. Had several hits like that throughout the day. Then Mark get another huge hit and he pulls in an Amaco Jack and its a keeper.

Bite dies down on the edge so we started working our way back home, stop at the Pen Hall site, tons of fish on the graph. We start drifting and start pulling up Red Snapper, some would have been legal but they all went back for in the water for another time. However Jonas did pull up a 21 inch Red Snapper, so we snapped quick pic of it. It would have fed us all, ah but the season is still a couple months off so back in the gulf he goes.

Around 2:30 we are thinking about heading in, but decided one more drift over the Pen Hall, and "BAM", Mark get a huge hit on his rig. As you can see the last fish of the day was a nice GAG grouper, around 11lbs and 21 inches. A great way to end the day. Head to the barn.

It was a beautiful day and I was really surprise more boats were not out fishing. Good start start for 2008 and it can only get better.

Oh yes, I chowed down on the grouper last night:clap

Sundance........

wrightackle

Congrats on the grouper! That is what we were looking for all day. We stayed on the edge trying different spots until sundown but just ended up with two keeper jacks. One of them was an almaco like yours that was larger than the legal jack we caught. I think that will be my last trip to the edge. Just not worth the trouble. There were a lot of boats out there. It will be interesting to see some more reports on what was caught. We eventually came in to the Avocet and hooked a few giant amberjacks but they broke us off.

Deeplines

Good report AND THANKS FOR POSTING IT, not many folks post here anymore. (Offshore Reports)

That Gag was worth the trip. :hungry

Out Align

I hate to rain on your parade but you said

"Mark get a huge hit on his rig. As you can see the last fish of the day was a nice GAG grouper, around 11lbs and 21 inches. A great way to end the day."

You might want to print this page and look where it says gag grouper 22"

http://myfwc.com/marine/Docs/Jan2008...rRegsChart.pdf

If he was 21" it might not be a great way to end the day if you get checked.

wrightackle

From looking at the pic of the gag I will guarantee that fish was legal. He probably made a mistake on the length. There is no need to chastise somebody for typing in an incorrect measurement. That is a fine grouper caught off of a public number. That is not an easy thing to do. To quote Josey Wales, there are too many junior fwc narcs waiting to pounce on somebody.

Sundance

He was legal, I typed this report at about o'dark thirty this am. So I made a type. OOPPPSS...


Sundanc

Captain Woody Woods

chill out wright...that may have been one on the most positive, less-invasive ways of simply telling someone that his fish might be a bit short. nothing negative about his word choice

chaos1

Nice Catch! I think if you were legally blind you could tell that fish was over 22". Thanks for the post!

Private Pilot

Sweetclap

Out Align

Maybe if you could read you would see that he posted that it was a 21" 11# Grouper. I have seen many pics where the fish looked bigger than what it really was. I was just trying to relay some infomation.

Congradulations on catching a legal grouper.