I actually got the chance for a little R&R today so my crew and I went out of Steinhatchee and fished the Gulf. When I go to the Gulf I usually go out of Horseshoe but this time we went out of Steinhatchee for the first time. The fog was so thick you couldn't see from one channel marker to the next so since it was our first time there, the fog was a real problem trying to navigate the channel towards the open sea. Luckily for us a local crab fisherman came by planed out so we followed him to open water. We started out in 55ft (water temp 58) and started catching a bunch of grunts, sea bass, and short grouper. We decided to move further out to look for warmer water and it paid off. Once we got to 65 feet, the water had warmed up to 63 degrees. We caught at least 40 grouper but only got 5 legal fish (3 gags and 2 red). Both the red grouper were an impressive 9 lbs. We also found the red snapper. We caught at least 40 red snapper as well; 2 of the red snapper we caught weighed 14lbs on the boga grip. Too bad for us the season for red snapper is currently closed so we had to throw them back. We would have limited out at least 3 times if it weren't for the closed season. At the last minute Don hooks something big; this fish started running and nearly spooled his Penn 300 Torque reel that was spooled with 60lb Diamond mamoi line within seconds. Finally just before he got spooled, the fish turned and he was able to gain line back. Short story: 40 minutes later we had about a 150lb bull shark to the boat. It turned out to be a great day with rods bending practically all day. Look in the video section of the website for an updated video of some of the struggle! I will try to post it within the next day or so. Also take note of the sea conditions in the photos; it doesn't get this nice very often. We made 45mph all the way back in!
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