Capt. John 10 Hour Offshore Friday August 5, 2016

Todays offshore trip by the party boat Capt. John was back to the normal 10 hour variety. Captain Johnny Williams took the 50 of us fishermen aboard to five surface platforms which were from 13 to 20 miles to SSW of the island.

The primary targets for the squid or sardine baits were Atlantic spadefish and bonnet head shark. They were both available and biting along with numbers of the “usuals” including red snapper that were quickly released alive. The big individual catch of the day was by Capt. Williams 10 year old grandson Justin. Using small pieces of cut squid on small circle hooks, and virtually letting them hook themselves, as circles are designed to do, he had a great catch. Thats “great” in that he hooked and decked 65 of those hard pulling and tasty on the plate Atlantic spadefish. During all of Justins “catching” I was on ling watch and just catching and releasing red snapper. What did come to me was a nick-name in reference to Justin’s personal “day best.” He’s now Justin “Darth Spader” Williams, incidentally the 65 Atlantic spadefish were donated to some needy folks in Texas City.

Iced down for the run back to Galveston’s Pier 19 was this catch:

225 Atlantic spadefish

48 Bonnet head shark

2 Stingray to 100#

3 Black drum

1 Kingfish

1 Red drum (released alive)

2 Gulf trout

See you on the Capt. John!

Patrick Lemire