It was the flight of the Yellowfin; a 36' open fisherman. The boat cruises at 50 mph in fair seas. With a crew of five adventurous anglers, we were bound 110 miles out to 434 feet of water in search of the really, really big grouper.
When my neighbor asked me if I wanted to go, hesitation was not an issue. We left my house at 4:15 A.M. and launched the boat at Clearwater and went directly to a bait corral. Capt. Lee Longworth had left bait at a friends house on the water. We collected that bait, cast netted some green backs and headed for Capt. Lee's offshore bait traps. At 6:30 A.M. With plenty of live bait the 24-7 with a full crew headed West. The seas were a little rough, so the boat could would only move at about 35 to 45 mph the first hour. It calmed a bit and Capt. Lee kicked the speed up.
By nine A.M. we were on station and catching dolphin fish (mahi-mahi in Hawaii, Dorado South of the boarder). Whatever you call them, they are excellent table fare. We boated 8 fish and commenced to bottom fish in 434 feet of water. At that depth, electric reels are a must. I hooked up a squirrel fish and dropped it down.
Within a couple of minutes, I had a fish on; no big deal or so I thought. I hit the reel switch, it whirred, screeched and moaned, but would not take line in. The captain thought I was on bottom, but that wasn't the case. I could not raise the rod tip to gain line like you normally would do. So I laid the rod on towel on the side of the boat and pressed down on the butt of the rod, gained a little and hit the switch. This see-saw action went on for 20 minutes. It took two of us to bring the 120 pound + Warsaw grouper over the side and into the boat.
That day we caught 2 more Warsaw grouper, but since the limit is one per boat, we returned the other live one to fight again. The third Warsaw was hit by a 10 foot mako shark, mutilated and killed. We tried to catch the shark, but he was full of Warsaw grouper. We also caught a 16 pound snowy grouper, 7 gags up to 20 pounds and a couple of red snapper. Snapper are out of season, so they were vented and returned to the deep. Click on the video address for the rest of the story. Capt. Lee Longworth was the videographer via You Tube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9YOpgWifag (flight of the Yellowfin video)
