Triple Hitter
An old song that comes to mind on this trip is” I couldn’t sleep at all last night…” and that’s how it was with me. I was looking forward to fishing with two top guides in the Pine Island area, Capt. Luis Silva and Capt. James Marko. The weather was looking great for tomorrow’s trip and Rolando, my best friend and co-host for the filming of my Hispanic TV show, was excited to be part of the trip.
A quick breakfast and we loaded our Okuma tackle, food, drinks and our camera equipment into our 26-foot Pathfinder. With a turn of the key, 300 horses came to life ready to take us to an adventure. Our first stop was just behind an anchored shrimp boat about 18 miles west of Boca Grande Pass. We traded six packs of beer for a bunch of by-catch and the right to fish around his boat. I could not believe my eyes looking at over 20 big bull sharks just cruising and looking for food. Out came our big Okuma Azores 80 reel with matching rod loaded with Fins 80-pound braided line, six feet of wire leader and a 12/0 hook. Big chunks of bonita tossed into the pack and the fight was on. We each took turns fighting this beautiful 10-foot bull–if you can call them that. What felt like an eternity was really an hour fight, and we landed our first prize of the day.
Next, was another 20-mile run west to a spring which dropped from 80 to 140-feet. There, we set our anchor lock on the trolling motor and dropped down with 3/0 circle hooks and small pinfish. The big flags (yellow tail snapper) hit, and in no time, we caught our limit. The secret to this spot is to watch your sonar and see at what depth the fish are sitting and keep your bait close to that depth. The only distraction was a few amberjacks and small sharks that got in the way. Now, on we went to our third and final stop of the day.
This was Capt. James’s specialty–catching big goliath grouper. We began going east about 22 miles to one of his many nearshore spots that hold these big beautiful fish. Here we pulled the big guns out–anchor rope with 8-foot of cable and 24/0 hook plus a big 10-pound bonita. Since the tide was slow and the depth was only around 45-feet, the weight of the cable and the dead fish was enough for the hook to slowly sink to the bottom. I don’t think it was more than a few minutes before we felt the pulling of the rope we had tied to the tee top. The fight was on, man against beast, foot by foot until he conceded. A couple more minutes, and he would have been the winner. I never let on that he almost had me.
Boca Grande has always been known as the tarpon capital of the world, yet overlooked for its great offshore fishery and inshore waters that offer snook, trout, redfish and flounder year-round.