Snapper Fishing

Seems like things have been a bit slow with the RBF staff. All we hear about is trout trout and more trout (especially by Wade Rivers). So I loaded up the truck and pointed it south. After 1,000 miles I decided I better stop or I’d be swimming in the gulf. We booked a trip with the Bluewater Bandit, fired up the twin 250’s and headed out for some big grouper.
After a short ride off shore of 45 miles it was time to look for the big guys. My nephew Erik started off with a big one that he couldn’t budge, so he decided to practice some long line releasing (he didn’t want to bring it up from a mere 225 feet down).
I then had to explain were not fishing for trout and this is strictly a catch and filet trip.
Action proved slow for the big grouper but the Red Snapper fishing was hot and heavy. We landed many 20+ pounders, only to release them to return to the depths (closed season).

Action was steady for the next few hours, and then things got real interesting. I had a nice fish hooked when everyone started to yell I better real quicker that a dolphin (flipper) just turned and was headed my way. Little did I know that a 4 hundred pound dolphin hits like a runaway freight train. For a brief (felt like forever) time I was battling this brute for my grouper. Finally the battle ended and I was fishless, never fearing I asked the mate for another dead smelly fish. I proceeded to drop to the bottom and repeated the process. Only this time the dolphin left go after a short battle. Once again it was a red snapper and had to be released, only to never make it back to the depths. We watched as 3 dolphins surrounded it, then in a flash one darted in and the snapper was no more. We finished the trip by boating 7 nice grouper, one shark and dozens of red snapper and a couple cases of beer.