This was going to be my second of 4 days on a Calcutta boat. Thomas had been here with his Calcutta before and went offshore with Woody Woods and inshore with Lou "Rock" on it. Although familiar with the area he actually had not much knowledge of anything but Tiger pass and South West pass to feel comfortable running in. I was to be with him for 3 days. The first day it was he and I on the boat marking safe passage in and out of some of the major passes. We went out the East and ended up coming in the West, I made a full run around the Venice area establishing safe passages.



Today was another day proove the Calcutta's cat hull capabilities in rough waters. We picked up some red snapper in state waters, a lane snapper, a large silver sea trout and an amberjack using Anteater jigs as we traveled around the loop.

The next day we had Thomas's buddy come in and join us. It was still rough and our chances of getting offshore for yellowfin was not going to happen. I went to an area where we had a chance for some blackfin nearby. Mark followed us with his Calcutta. Our first stop was a few miles out. It was rough so going farther out depended on the crew. The bite was slow so we bounced around to another rig a few hundred yards away. 2 and almost a third guy on Marks boat were already sick so he headed in. We headed a bit further out and were able to make it out to the first place I was hoping for blackfin. We found a nice an almaco jack dropping down Anteater jigs.



Another few tries and we pick up an amberjack. That was the only one we could get away from the sharks. What happens is as the amberjack tires the sharks sense it and attack at will. If the shark is big enough it will take the entire fish. At almost all the places we stopped we found a cobia or two but it was hard to get them interested in anything. Had to be the front we were in that gave them lockjaw. Eventually we teased one enough to take our jig. This guy tried everything it could to get free but we soon invited him to come to dinner with us.



It was getting calmer as the day went on but by then it was too late to run out. On the way in we stopped in state waters for some red snapper. They came in quickly. We headed in for our fish cleaning party with some meat in the box.



While the 2 guys fueled up and cleaned the boat I took care of our catch for the day.



Life is Good!

Fishing is not a matter of life or death. It's more important than that.

CAPT HOOP -- OUR FREEDOM