Rusty, Wes and I spent a day at sea last weekend fishing for grouper and snapper in the Gulf of Mexico off St. Petersburg, Fla. We set off into what looked like a perfect day, but 2 to 2.5 foot seas made the trip out pretty rough. No seasickness during the hour-plus journey to get to cooler water where the grouper and snapper have retreated in the heat of summer, but we got bounced around a lot and were definitely relieved when the boat finally stopped about 50 miles out and we started fishing.
Overall, we had a great day. Wes snagged a several big snapper and a keeper grouper and Rusty managed to land four sharks, much against his will. He will henceforth be known as “Shark Man,” and we agreed never to speak of his antics again, much as the characters at the end of Deliverance made a pact to keep the trip secret. That Rusty sure does got a purty mouth, I’ll tell you what …
We also pulled in a nice kingfish.
In this photo, the frenetic Captain Nelson, holds up two of the snapper we caught while Wes grins smugly in the background. Nelson and Captain Toby did a great job helping us pull in fish and untangle lines.
We retreated to Rusty’s house afterward, where Wes and Rusty’s wife Janet cooked up snapper, grouper and kingfish in every way imaginable. It was incredible. I had a big kingfish steak, which was much better than the mackerel we caught and ate the last time we fished Tampa Bay.
I’ve uploaded more photos here on my Flickr account.