JoeZ

Well we were going to close out the state red snapper season come hell or high water.



Me, Eric Holstman, Brad Sauers, Party Boy (what's his real name E?) and Wes Holstman left the pass about 10 a.m. headed to a spot Brad and I had lots of luck at for the past few trips.



After struggling with bait in the bay, we found cigs and hardtails at a buoy and made it out into the slop. Seas were forecast at 2 to 4 and that would have been great. It was the five foot swells and random six footers that made me hurl. No really, I was fishing the bow of Eric's 25 Contender and looked up and could see nothing but water around me. I finally blew chunks when we packed everything up and ducked down to stow some frozen bait, we took a wave weird and I knew it was over.



Any way, there were fish caught. It was slow but we weren't really putting our best foot forward. Standing up was a priority for most of us.



Eric and Brad took the stern while me, Wes and P.B. were up front doing the majority of the work.



Wes and I landed the two biggest of the day while Party Boy bagged the most -- even got one on a worm hook just because he wanted to.



Eric broke out ol Spongebob and landed a legal ARS on that little bad boy. Brad was talked out of keeping his first fish or two because we (and by we I mean me) were confident we could do better. Overconfidence will kill you.



We ended up one short of our five-man limit but threw a half dozen keepers back early. Why? We could do better. Did I mention overconfidence?



Eric sabikied a ruby or 30 and he and Brad dropped em down for the big brown monsters we know live there. They weren't home or weren't hungry and the rubies were later released with only minor puncture wounds.



Brad did recreate his previous entanglement with an unknown below. Hooked a snapper (or something not too huge to pull up) and after a reel or two got freight trained down to the bottom and pulled the hooks.



We came prepared for the VW this time. I brought a 6/0 spooled with 150-pound braid, 200-pound leader, 5 pounds of lead and the biggest circle hook known to man.



Never even took'em out as the swells made me rethink my desire to tangle with something that triples my weight while struggling to keep my footing.



All in all, not a bad day but we could've used some better weather, less puking and more beer.



And now for pictures.



Wes drops.







Me hooked up with my biggest of the day -- maybe 7 pounds.







Brad waits patiently.







3/5 of the crew discuss why we decide to fish in 4-6 seas.







Post mortum fish pile. Bigs might have been 7 pounds or so. Maybe 8 if they were constipated.







Party Boy (aka The Snapper Bomber) declares jihad on the fish.







Eric, Sponngebob and a big RS.







We'll get back at it in April -- or whenever the man decides we get to fish for the snapper again.

Ultralite

good post joe...we did the same thing...rough as hell at first then laid down to a rolling 2-3 on the way back...thanks for sharing...we went west as to not get beat up on the way out...

JoeZ

It never seemed to lay down for us. We tucked tail and ran in about noon or so when we THOUGHT we had a limit.

Again, we means me.

There also were a few short triggers involved in this mess.

parrothead

Good report Joe !!!!!!!!! Sorry to hear you sick Looks like it was pretty rough out there.

Scott

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captjimV.A.S

Last day of snapper season was yesterday 10/31/08 it was closed on 11/1/08 I was stoped in the pass at 4.30 pm by a marine patrol looking for anyone who my have tried to bring in red snapper,so they could drop the hammer on them.As luck would have it today was one of the best snapper day's of this year and i put them all back...Took five kings,three bonita,two AJ'S and one ten pound trigger.

JoeZ

Dang.

And of course they get hungry the day AFTER the season closes.

They'll be on fire April 14, no doubt.

FLORIDA BOY

that looked pretty sporty out there!