Well, I finally arrived at the end of a nearly 450 mile ride after getting about 2 1/2 hours of sleep last night. I am pretty excited (and exhausted). Truth be told, I am more excited about being out of my hometown for three days than the fishing. I am not sure what we will be fishing for, but I will give a full report when we get back to the room tomorrow. (with pics to prove that they are not just fish stories)

Rev. R. Farrier

Last time I went out from Clearwater, and this was many years ago, we caught grouper.

Delicious!

Enjoy your time there.

enjoy Rev.

Enjoy Catch some fish

Have fun, Rev. Hope you can catch that big one.

Well, my report is a few days late because I was so exhausted when we got back to the Hampton Inn. I spent eight hours on the Double Eagle II. I am not sure how far out we were, but I could barely see the buildings on the shore. We caught a lot of grouper; all but one were too small. The person who caught the keeper wasn't in my group. The main thing we caught though was grunts. They are an interesting little fish. I pulled in 17 of them. If there weren't so many people on the boat pulling them in too, I could have probably pulled in a lot more. All in all, for my first trip out that far, it was quite a bit of fun. Now I plan on getting all the info I need for getting my own boat, nothing as big as the Double Eagle II, just a pontoon boat or something that I can take myself and a handful of friends out offshore in Savanna or someplace similar.

The Boat we were on:


My first fish, a little grouper:


Me with on of my keepers, a grunt:


My best friend with one of his little groupers:


All of the keepers that were caught by everyone on the boat:



It was great fun. My pastor has already started planning another trip for October.


Rev. R. Farrier

This post has been edited by Rev. Redmond Farrier: July 27th 2009 7:53 PM

Looks like you enjoyed yourself a lot! I never ate any grunt, that I can remember (I've eaten a lot of fresh fish living here in Fla that I did not know what it was) but I think they are supposed to be passably good. Grouper is really really good.

Maybe next time you'll catch a big one.

If you fish around piers and the sides of canals you will catch snapper, which are also really delicious.

Looks like a nice day. So what do you think-about about 10-12 miles or so?

I heard someone say we were starting out at 11 miles. We moved a lot throughout the day, so I am not sure just how far out we wound up. It took over an hour to get back to shore at the end of the day.

Awesome pics and cool story! You are now more hooked than any fish ever was i would bet.
Before you buy a boat for offshore fishing, get in contact with me, a pontoon boat is not a god choice, maybe i can help you in your quest.
Jim

Nice Catch rev.