Reef Raider Adventures: Last Tuesday

I know teachers complain a lot about our crappy pay, but this summers off thing is a perk that to me is priceless; it allows me a couple months to kick back and do the things I really love to do, like Fish.

Anyway, I was supposed to play poker Tuesday night with some friends, but a late afternoon call from some good friends to do some snapper fishing meant "The Hell With Poker, I'm Going Fishing." I was told to bring a long a friend if I wanted; so who do I know that loves fishing and can say yes at the drop of a hat without worrying about work, wife, or any other barrier? My Assistant coach Mike Castro of course; so I called Mikie and a little over an hour later we were on our way to Tavernier to Jorge and Bob's house.

We set out and picked up a pin fish trap that had been set out a little earlier, and as always with these traps I turned all my friends on to, it was loaded.

We headed out and found 85 feet of water, the Sounder was marking big schools of fish so we anchored up, put out the Chum Bag, and on his first drift "BANG" Bob was on the first tail of the night. The rest of the night was a steady mix of Yellowtails and Mangrove Snappers.

Of course as is the custom with Bob and Jorge, they spent a good part of the evening busting balls, and me with a slow start it just added fuel to the fire. Mikie spent most of the night cracking up, and even got in on the ribbing. Eventually my rod did heat up and I got my share of the limit, I even managed a nice size Mang at the end of the evening with a live pinny I drifted back to close out our limit and call for the pulling of the anchor.

Jorge spent most of the night teaching Mikie a thing or two about Snapper fishing, and handed Mikie his rod numerous times with a fish already on it. Mikie could not have asked for a better tutor really, as both Jorge and Bob are well seasoned and highly experienced snapper slayers.

I also included a few pictures of a fishing trip that Jorge and Bob took earlier in the week, notice the suicidal Black Grouper the either threw itself on Jorge's hook, or possibly swallowed a small tail the size that Jorge usually catches and ended up on the boat. It was a nice catch any way you slice it, a 17 pound grouper on a 12 pound snapper rig says it all. I guess it was a depressingly bad day for fish because Jorge also managed a suicidal and rare catch of a Hog Snapper on fishing line, everyone knows if you want Hog Snapper you best get down and dirty with a Spear Gun.

Anyway, enjoy the pictures.