reelfinatical

<SPAN class=postbody>I checked my charts last night and madethe final plan for today:

We left this morning at 7am &amp; ranbetween 27 and 30nmSouth to several natural bottom spots in 215' or so of water... H2O temp was 68.5.

At about the 10 mile offshore mark we noticed a BUNCH of Man O Wars that continued with us on offshore. I've never seen them that concentrated!

Arrived at our first drop. First fish up was Scott's 28" Gag off a piece of squid.

A small cigar minnow gets tossed out&amp; second fish was Scott's KING!

Not a bad start &amp; the rest of the day continued as hookup after hookup for us.

Baits: Squid &amp; Cigar Minnows
Live Baits: residents that I jigged up (tomtates, squirrelfish, etc) over the spots.

Total Fish Caught:

Kings (small snakes, all less than 10LBS)
Gags (none bigger than 30", only kept 1 - freezer is getting full)

Red Groupers (all 2" too small)
Scamp
Almacos
Mingos
Lanes
1 20" Red Snapper
nice 30" AJs
a few Triggers &amp; an EEL<SPAN class=postbody>
a mystery "tropical" fish? I'll post pics later..

There were several instances of heavy-pulling fish that hit live tomtates &amp; we'd yank them up away from the holes, fight 'em for a few, but then they would vanish. ::slap in the forehead:: Missed hooks I assume.

We also battled EIGHT big sharks today (or maybe it was the same shark 8 times, lol) . . . couldn't tell you what kind or estimate a length because we gained as much line back as possible before being forced to cut the lines.

At about 4pm Scott released his last AJ and shouted "THAT'S IT, I'M DONE....I'M HURTING". lmao. (He NEVER volunteers to go home, lol).

Slick seas for the ride home ~ backat the casaat 5:15 as Mr Wuerffel stopped by to clean the fish for us again. (He filets like a pro &amp; leaves no meat behind, lol).

My feet hurt, my legs hurt, my arms hurt, my face is burnt, and my back is killing me ~ ~ I guess that's when you know you've had an AWESOME fishing day. =D

Some pics:<SPAN class=postbody>

Inn Deep

"My feet hurt, my legs hurt, my arms hurt, my face is burnt, and my back is killing me ~ ~ I guess that's when you know you've had an AWESOME fishing day. =D "

Amen!!

look forward to the pics

still flippen

I'll drink to that:letsdrink

Great way to end 2008:usaflag

__________________

reelfinatical

Here's the one I could use ID help with:

NaClH2O

Sounds like yall had a blast. You know it was great day when your still sore two days after the trip. Great report and pics.

Rob

Chuck's Charters

Speckled Hind aka Kitty Mitchell. You limited out on Kitty Mitchells - 1 per vessel per day.

Aircoastie

We were out in the same area and could not believe those man o wars! It was kind of slow for us at first, we tried several spots until I revisited one of my grouper marks from last year. Our bite turned on in about 170-185' around noon. We were after the grouper but every one we caught was an inch or so too small. We did however get sick of catching big red snapper (why can't they be in season when I catch big ones)!! I do not think we caught one less then 23". We tried going deeper to get away from them with no luck. Everything was caught on squid and cigars.

true-king

Yeah, those man o wars are EVERYWHERE right now.

Thanks for the report :clap

recess

Good report and pictures. I wish you could write our reports. You put in that extra touch. I always enjoy reading your posts. Gene

YakAttack

Tavis, Sounds like you had a fun trip even if you didn't get to keep a lot of what you caught.
Lookslike you're having some nice weather for late December! I'm still back in KY looking forward to my next trip.