Day 10 – Fishing with Wayne

The day started early with us waking up at 5:30am. We were going out on a fish charter out of Captain Hook’s marine with Wayne. Tobi, Anna, Darrel, Lane, LT and I went out on the charter this morning at 6:30am. Olivia stayed back at the house as she was not feeling too good this morning.

Wayne took out and headed out in the bay on the gulf side and headed south under the seven mile bridge past the lighthouse headed east about another four miles. He anchored near a reef ledge that had a 100 foot drop-off. The boys started out fishing for snappers and it wasn’t long before they start hooking up. The fished for some time and caught more than we kept. Anna tried for some time and then Tobi. Finally Darrel and I got a chance at the snappers and managed to get a couple nice one in the ice box.

With a little over 20 snappers caught, we headed to a new spot to try and hook up on some amberjacks and groupers. Wayne dropped some rigged for the both LT and Lane and after about 15 minutes Wayne hooked up on a bite and handed it to Lane, while immediately one of the other poles got it and was quickly manned by LT. Thomas reeled the line relatively quickly revealing a jack crevalle weighing in at around 10lbs.

Lane on the other hand had a pretty big fish on the line. Lane fought it for at least 20 minutes before handing the pole over to Thomas for a bit of relief. Wayne seemed to think it was an Amberjack based on the head shakes and quick runs it was doing. Thomas reeled about 10 minutes before handed it back to Lane. The boys switch off each one more time. They reeled in line and then the fish took it back out. LT had the pole when all of a sudden we saw color. It took a bit of time to make out the shape, but as it came closer to the boat and surface we were all amazed to find it was about an 8 foot 300lb+ Bullshark. Right before it got to the surface it managed to break the line. DAMN – what a heck of reeling!!!!

Everyone jacked up and bummed not to get it to the boat, we moved to the next location. Wayne rigged up some new poles with some ballyhoo and the boys threw them out for barracuda. LT reeled in two. One of them was a really nice one about two feet long weighing in at over 12lbs. Before long it was 12:30 and we needed to head back to the dock. It didn’t take long in his 26’ Oceanmaster. It was a smooth ride back to Captain Hooks.

Wayne cleaned the fish for at least 40 minutes. We hung around the dock, feed the fish and drank a few beers while Wayne was doing the cleanup work. Finally a little after 2pm, we loaded the car and headed back to the house. Everyone was ready to get back to the house and relax a bit. Unfortunately, Darrel, Tobi and Lane needed to head back home today, so they had to pack right away. LT and Lane drove the SS Minnow to the boat ramp that they used the other day to launch in and met Darrel there to pull the boat out of the water. When they returned, they packed all the kayaks, scuba gear, fishing poles, tackle and tons of other odds and ends.

Finished packing we all headed to Castaways for a midday lunch.