My oldest son and I took a couple of offshore trips out of Galveston and got into big King Mackerel. One of em was so big that my arm cramped up on me and all I could do was hang on with my other arm as the beast took more line. We even won the boat's big Red Snapper pot with a 14 pound whopper. The seas were like glass and the weather was perfect. I can't tell you how cool it is to see those Kings making a run at your bait. Check out the pictures at my site.

I went out on the 8 hour trip on the New Buck also on June 12th. Our boat didnt have as much luck as yours seem to have had. We ran into a WHOLE LOT of sharks, but the snapper were very limited. I caught a couple of Kings, but none that were in those weight class. Those are some really nice fish. I am sure I will be out there again.

Me too. We're talking about an early August trip. We may try Capt Elliott's in Freeport. Does anybody know how it compares with the party boats out of Galveston?

More quality & fish shorter run to the fish in most cases as I have experienced

Not only better quality fish and shorter run, but they ice your fish almost immediately instead of letting them bake on a stringer!!

I'm definately gonna have to give them a try then. I took the virtual tour of their boat on their website and that thing is far bigger than the party boats out of Galveston. It even has sleeping bunks. I wonder if they'll allow you to take a nap on the way back in from a 12 hour trip? I was lucky on our second trip and was able to grab a good nap on the way back which helped alot with the 6 hour drive back home that began as soon as we walked off the boat.

BeachKing,
Both of our trips had sub-par snapper catches too with very few keepers. On our second trip I was right next to a guy that snapper fished the entire time and although he caught alot of them, he only nabbed two keepers which were just over the minimum length limit. He was pretty smart because they kept stealing our bait without getting hooked so he got some pliers and fabricated his hooks into circle hooks and started catching them two at a time. As for me, I would fish for Kings until the dolphins would show up and scare everything away then I'd go to the bottom for snappers. I don't believe any of the snappers that were thrown back ever made it back to the bottom because the dolphins would go after them as soon as they hit the water. We didn't think they were so cute and we all wanted to shoot them for scaring the fish away. We figured as smart as they are that we'd only need to shoot one for the whole school to go away. The deckhands were not amused with our plan.

Here's a pic of the guy fishing next to me and the typical snapper size we were catching.

Part boats 4 hr out 4 hr fishing 4 hr back. Did it once.

Next time you go, try to drop your offering slow to the bottom because the larger red snapper will suspend in the water column instead of hanging out with the little ones on the bottom. Get you a good lead head jig with a tail and tip it with a cigar minnow or icefish, and let that drop slow. If the spadefish and triggers are not around, you should be able to pick up some REALLY NICE red snapper. I use Snapper Slappers in either 1oz.- 4oz jigs in pink/chart. or blue/chart., great colors, but they all work well.

If you get into vermilion snapper, use the smallest piece of bait(not much larger than your thumbnail)on your hook...they're notorious bait stealers and eat just fine. You can only keep 10 and they have to be 11inches.

I'm gonna try to go out w/Elliot's once school starts back up since then the boats will be less crowded.