By: Capt. Terry Fisher
Last March, I had the opportunity to take a trip offshore with one of the most successful fishing guides in SW Florida (Captain Randy Frank of Salty C Pirates, Pine Island, Fl. I have been observing Captain Randy’s offshore successes for a long time. Like myself, Captain Randy spent some years in the United States Marine Corps. I was not aware of his service in that military branch until more recently and naturally, that added to the comradery that Marines cherish so much and for the most part, forever. The Marines Motto is Semper Fi (‘One For all; All For One)!
Over the years, I have made it a habit to ‘charter’ other fishing guides that I respect, and have proven successes. Especially when it comes to species that I feel I can improve my skills by on the job training. That can only happen by spending a day on the water observing and learning their techniques. This also helps to reinforce confidence in my strategies for my clients both inshore and offshore.
While I do a number of ‘Captain for Hire’ by the hour in federal waters (nine miles and more offshore on the west coast and three miles or more offshore on the east coast); I am allowed by law to take people to the federal fishing grounds on their private vessels so long as they are fully compliant with registration, safety equipment, and possess fishing licenses for every angler with applicable Gulf Reef and Pelagic permits, if they are going to fish.
On the other hand, Captain Randy has a Federal Fishing License as well as the applicable permits which allow him to charter fishing adventures in federal waters on his vessel. Federal licensing is expensive and can be difficult to come by.
The above interlude brings me to my March 14, ‘Birthday Offshore Paradise Trip’ with Captain Randy.
It all started with my daughter Stacie and son-in-law; Brent Walker of St. Louis, Missouri flying in for a few days to celebrate my birthday. Brent loves to fish and travels to destinations around the Midwest, Louisiana and Florida from time to time. Understanding that their main reason for a trip to Florida to celebrate my birthday had an underlining expectation, spending time on my vessel fishing inshore or offshore.
Unfortunately, the March winds were acting up preventing spending more than one day on the water during their stay. I was exhausted from inshore charter trips dealing with high winds and needed a break. I felt bad for the Brent, as I knew his desire to fish at least one time. As luck would have it, I ran into Captain Randy on the dock the evening before the kids would arrive and he told me that there was a short window of opportunity to do a ‘combo’ (day/night) run the next afternoon before the westerly cold front moved in, bringing with in cool weather and 3 days of windy conditions. The only problem for Captain ’Randy was that at that moment he only had two people committed to going and he needed at least four anglers to make it worthwhile. Needless to say, I was in and would bring my son-in-law with me.
The bad news was that Brent was not arriving until around 1am the morning of my birthday. The good news was that the ‘day/night’ combo trip would not depart from Pineland Marina in Bokeelia until noon from the dock, allowing Brent a late morning sleep in.
We arrived on time and were ready to depart. Captain Randy got bean bags down, one for each of us to sit on, blankets to keep us warm during our 40-mile run to about 110ft. of water. Just as Captain Randy said, the ride was good and not too rough.
Our first stop was to catch some lane and mangrove snappers to eat before going for grouper. Once that was accomplished, we changed locations in search of grouper, more specifically, big red grouper. We caught more lane snappers, but only a couple of nice size red groupers. The bag limit was two red grouper per person, so Captain Randy had work to do. We pulled up the rods and went a traveled a couple of miles to around 120ft. in search of the main quarry. It was late afternoon and approaching evening.
His trolling motor incorporates a ‘spot’ lock so no anchoring needed. We started catching big red grouper almost immediately. Once we limited out, it was time to find a wreck to catch yellowtail snapper which was the purpose of a night time run. Yellowtail is normally better late evening or night time.
Yellowtail requires lots of chum but unlike snapper and grouper fishing (straight down), anglers feed lighter test line with small hooks tipped with small baits out behind the vessel to drift with the current and over the structure until the fish hits it. We had a very successful yellowtail harvest including one at 37”. Once we had our limits, we loaded the rod and reels up, got the bean bags and blankets out and headed back to port.
Pictured is Brent with his 37” yellowtail snapper, and Captain Randy with a nice mangrove snapper.