MARKSOUTDOORS.COM

GULF COAST JUNE 2005

We went out about 30 miles south of the Sand Island lighthouse to a rig in about 125' of water. About 20 miles out, we found a developing weedline but, although we fished it for half an hour, we didn't find any fish. Maybe it was too early with the sun just barely coming up.

We continued on to our destination and fished upcurrent for a few minutes without any bites. Next we tied up and stayed there almost the whole time. We ended up with 2 red snappers (about 20"), 5 lane snappers (3 of them very fat and about 18"), 3 gag groupers (only one was a keeper at 24"), several vermillion snappers, 2 trigger fish and some grunts. We also boated a huge hardtail.

I had two big hits and large runs on live bait about half way down. Both times, the store bought 80 pound rig busted. My fault...I guess I should have made my own rig. I'm pretty sure both hits were amberjack from the way they ran.

I saw a few other boats fishing the same area...one caught a few amberjack and a cobia, one caught a large red snapper.

On the way back in, we stopped at a rig about 20 miles out in 110'. We fished there about 30 minutes and only pulled up a few grunts. Then we fished the Anderson wreck for about 30 minutes with only grunts being pulled up.

All-in-all, a very good day!