With the end of grouper season staring me in the face I knew what I had to do. I called in the big guns. I made the call to Coffey boys, Clarendon county bottom fishing gurus, Hwilcox, and some guy named Phin. We met Phin at the landing before day light and loaded his “tools” onto the All Rise.
The ride through the harbor was cold but the Judge was ready with his heater. Everyone gathered in the cabin for a warm ride through the harbor. We cleared the rocks and were greeted with a sloppy ocean and a NE wind. I set my course and headed to my spot. Phin had questions about why and where. With some type of crazy voodoo magic Phin sent my GPS into a tail spin. It started going nuts. Flashing on and off. Phin almost seemed to smile as he reached into his bag of tricks. Out comes his HDS 8. Quick wiring job and we were headed a new direction. The ocean was rough but the crew knew what we had to do.
Finally after about 25 miles of slop the skys parted the wind laid down it was as if the fishing gods smiled upon us, the ocean went flat. I pushed the hammers down and we made short time of the rest of the trip.
I pulled back on the throttles and we dropped the hook. The judge pulled out his homemade pork rinds and hot sauce. Actually a pretty good breakfast. Lines in and it was not long before the Judge and Hwilcox pull a grouper over the rail. The bite was strong and the coffey boys went to hammering them on the starboard side. Phin moved to the bow with is “tractor”, the latest and greatest from his friends at Avet. Before I know it another nice grouper comes over the rail. We stayed here for a bit and the AJs moved in. Picked up and moved to a new spot.
The judge pulled out the grill and cooked us a hot lunch which really hit the spot on a cool winters day. While everyone was eating Phin sat on the bow and brought in another grouper over the rail. Then Frank slams one on the deck. The bite is hot but so was lunch. We worked around the grill with bait, and fish sliding into the bo
Had a great time on this one. Lunch and supper were treats especially for me. Tell you what… Even the pork rinds were dang good. Don’t know why stuff tastes so good on the all rise. Must be the chef working as hard on the food as I do on fishing.
Thanks again to everyone on the boat and sorry we didn’t catch more!
One of these days scootin will not be on a boat with me during any hard gusting northerlies perhaps.
I see some trolling gear…where ya’ll thinking about pulling out the ballyhoo?
Pat Condon
KSA Marine Insurance
(843)568-8559
I am a troller at heart. Bottom fish on the side. It is against my religion to go that far and not have something in the boat to pull baits with. If the tuna would have shown up or we found big school of bait out deep I wanted to be ready.
Set the trap boys, we going to pass through them again!!
Scoutin, I hear you–I’m the same way. Bottom fishing is a great way to keep the boat running well through the cold months and have some fun so everything will be in good working order when it comes time to troll again…
