Capt John 12 Hour Offshore Friday July 8, 2016
The party boat Texsun II was on a 12 hour charter trip for todays offshore fishing. Captain Jill Williams took the group of 33 from LFT Panels, which was headed up by Willie Fernandez, to bottom spots about forty-five miles to the south of the island. There the 115 feet deep blue waters of the gulf gave them a red snapper limit to 15# and a big surprise. As is usual the red snapper liked the squid or Spanish sardine baits that were fished thru the water column. Also taken were a few vermillion snapper and a kingfish to completer that part of the catch.
The days surprise came while a number of anglers had sardines freelined from the stern positions. One kingfish was caught but the big surprise was the hookup with a sailfish. The sail was retained since it was of 68 inches in length, measured from its lower jaw to the fork in it’s tail, four inches over the minimum. It weighed an estimated 75#.
The sail was a memorable catch for sure as the angler had never before been offshore fishing, was using boat tackle with a boat supplied wire leader. As I’ve written and said many times in the past decades “you never know who’s going to catch what, at any stop, on any day, using whatever tackle.” All of these unknowns make offshore party boat fishing the exciting sport it is….the unknowns and the successes. Today reminds me of the huge ling that was caught on May 6th of 2001 when another angler with the same offshore experience level and tackle hooked up big time. That ling weighed in at 111.5 pounds and would still be the Texas record except for the fact that three folks in total ended up pulling on the rod to get it in. These were each probably fish of their lifetime and you can bet that neither of those anglers will ever stop telling of the big one that didn’t get away.
Back to today’s catch totals:
66 red snapper to 15#
4 vermillion snapper
1 kingfish
1 Atlantic sailfish (estimated at 75#)
Make your reservations on a Williams Party Boat, your big surprise is out there somewhere right now. Its just a matter of making the right connection, remember-“who, what, when, and where”…you could be next.
See you on a Williams Party Boat!
Patrick Lemire