I was headed for the ramp at St Augustine by myself. I planned on working the jetties for some sheepshead and maybe a creek mouth or two to see if any flounder had shown up. At the least I could get some pictures of other anglers and their catches.
When I arrived, there was a line of trailers that went all the way around the parking lot, waiting to get to the ramp. Seems there was an inshore trout tournament going on today. I thought I could get some pictures of that weigh-in, so I really wasn't that concerned about the crowd.
My cell phone rang while I waited in line. It was my son, who was supposed to call me the night before to arrange a meeting place. He never called, so I assumed he had other plans. One thing led to another on the call, and he headed for the ramp to meet me.
I had three rods in the boat, all of them eight pound test spinning outfits. My son, Tom, arrived with another spinning outfit and a baitcaster with an Ambassadeur 5500C spooled with 12 pound test line.
We headed for the jetties only to find two items of interest. First, the water was really dirty. The blow over the last week had the entire beach and coastline stirred and catching any fish along the jetties would be difficult. Second, the winds had laid and the seas outside the jetties looked like a lake.
"Maybe we could go out to Nine-mile and get a bunch of sea bass and beeliners on light tackle", Tom said. "All we need is some bait." I thought for a moment and then agreed. We ran back to the tackle shop and got a box of squid, the offshore bottom fishing standard bait, and then headed out the inlet.
As we ran, the seas proved even better than we thought, so we reset the GPS for another bottom area about twenty-two miles out. Running was easy, and at thirty-five knots, we were there in no time.
We found the bottom we were looking for and in short order we were catching some nice beeliners - that's vermillion snapper for those of you who don't recognize the specie. An occasional black sea bass was even mixed in the catch.
As we continued to catch these two to three pound fish on our light spinning gear, I failed to see my son hook a larger chunk of bait to his hook. He was fishing with his 5500C and a bass flippin' stick.
Suddenly, I heard him grunt and turned to see his rod bent. The flippin' stick was doubled over and the line on the 5500C was leaving fast! I figured it to be a grouper, one just big enough to run to a hole on our light tackle. But to my surprise, Tom actually turned the fish.
He made two or three pumps and was gaining some line when the fish turned and ran for the bottom again. Zip, zip, zip, the line ran from his reel. I looked at the reel and realized that he had very little line on the spool.
"How old is that line", I asked him.
"I don't remember when I put it on there," he said between grunts, "but I know I only have about a hundred yards on it."
Fish like this normally get away or break the line, and become wonderful fish tales for future trips - the one that got away. But with Tom's handling and expert pressure tactics, he managed to get the fish to the surface where I netted it and brought it in the boat.
I made sure to get the rod and reel in one of the pictures so people could accuse me of a set up picture. But what you see is what we got: A nice fifteen pound red snapper on bass tackle. Take it to the bank!
UPDATE: My son Tom went back out yesterday. With a rod in one hand (his flippin stick) and another rod in the rod holder, he got a bite on both rods. One thing led to another, and before it was over, his flippin stick went over the side and currently rests in ninety feet of water next to the old Dorothy Louise tugboat wreck!
