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Joined some of the guys from basspro for a charter out of Hubbards Marina in Tampa Bay for a 39 hour deep drop snapper / grouper / amberjack charter. Departed the dock at 2pm Sunday aboard the Fisherman II and started by trolling plugs and spoons. The boat managed a few small-decent Spanish Mackeral and one missed strike from a king mackeral before most of us shut it down to get some sleep. Arrived at our first location around midnight and started soaking sardines on ridges in +/- 100 fow. The fishing was generally slow but the captain worked hard trying to put us on active fish. Still at 2pm on the 28th the box was still looking pretty empty. Didn't help that Red Snapper and Gag Grouper season was closed and we had to pitch some nice fish back over the rail. At this point we decided to make a slightly longer run and hit a wreck to see if the AJ's were active. First stop found some fish but mostly shorts, next stop found some better snapper and a few grouper / scup etc. but things really fired off at the last stop of the trip... Multiple people hooking and landing solid AJ's, multiple large blacktip sharks and a pile of beeliners and vermilion snapper. I hooked and got my butt handed to me by my first solid AJ! Dang them things can fight! Even on the 60lb gear the boat provided it took me close to 10 minutes to bring him to the rail. After catching my breath I dropped another beeliner down as bait and almost immediately hooked up again. This time it was a blacktip shark in the 7-8 ft range. Took a solid 20 minutes or following the fish around the boat, clearing lines and going under and over other people fighting sharks and AJ's to bring him to the rail just to have him freak out and snap the line when the mate missed a swipe with the gaff... That turned out to be the last fish for me which was just as well because I was exhausted! Pulled in our lines at about 9pm as the sun finished setting and started the trip back in. A solid trip that really ended with a bang!
Chimo
36 lb Amber Jack
Chimo
36 lb Amber Jack
