- Merle Seamon


Ever since I was a kid growing up in Arkansas I have loved all types of fishing, so when I was about 10 and my mom and dad first took me offshore on a charter out of Panama City, I was the one who got hooked. Ever since that day I have taken every opportunity I could find to get offshore, which wasn’t particularly easy for a guy who lived most of his life up there in the middle somewhere.

Fast forward to about 8 years ago when my wife and I left everything we knew behind to follow a crazy dream in Florida and buy a marina.  I was finally in the right place to really get into offshore fishing, unfortunately the time constraints of owning, operating and expanding a marina made my trips more infrequent than I would prefer. After several years of hard work we began getting offers to sell out that were too good to ignore and I began shopping for the right boat to take with us down the next road where life was leading us.

Enter Another Road, a 48’ Ocean Yachts Express Sportfish that was perfect for both cruising and fishing. We got the boat and I began to fulfill my offshore fishing dreams.  As is always the case, it took a couple more years to finally complete a sale of the marina, but I still was able to make time for a number of successful trips between Tarpon Springs and the Middle Grounds and everywhere in between.

Fast forward to the present and I am involved in other business interests, including serving as Co-publisher and Editor and Chief for Onshore-Offshore, that allow me a little more flexibility to fish when the weather is right and on Thursday November 19th of 2009 it was right.  I had been trying to get my partner in the magazine, Bret Gamrot, out for a nice grouper trip for over a year and scheduling problems or weather had always gotten in the way.  Finally the stars aligned and Bret and I were both able to make it and the weather looked perfect. We were also fortunate to have our good friends Scott and Laura Patrick and Bruce Kitzis from Shoot Straight Inc. of Tampa, and my good friend Marty Cohen of Tarpon Springs join us for the trip.

Morning came early on Nov. 19, but I woke before the alarm and headed for the boat to get things ready. We quickly loaded ice and bait and cranked the big Cats up and we were ready to be on our way.  Everything was going perfectly until I turned on my trusty old Northstar GPS Chartplotter where my magic numbers are stored. Something just wasn’t right, it didn’t go through the normal startup sequence and when it finally did come on line, there were no magic numbers.  Finally Marty asked if the memory card was plugged in the machine and when we looked it was gone. Some worthless SOB had stolen my numbers and the computer chip they were stored on. I turned on my newer Raymarine C-120 and fortunately it was fine but I had never moved many of the numbers to its GPS because I preferred to use it full screen as a fishfinder while using the Northstar to set up and anchor.  I did have some numbers stored in the C-120 so I selected some spots around 65 feet and we were on our way after a very short delay.  I have most of my other numbers on paper, or I know who to get them from, so fortunately I will be able to recoup from the loss. I think anyone who would steal a man’s magic numbers is worse than a horse thief and deserves to walk the plank.

At any rate, back to the fishing story.  We had a pleasant ride out to our first stop, which was around 25 miles off of Anclote Key and a little north in 65 feet of water.  I had heard others had done well in the area recently so we decided to give it a try.  As we got near the number, the bottom began to light up like a Christmas tree and I knew the fish were here, but would they be hungry? 

We set up and anchored on the spot.  For those not familiar with bottom fishing, this is probably the most difficult and critical aspect affecting your success.  As a result of the chip thief we were on a spot that I was not thoroughly familiar with so I had to take some time to study the structure and figure out exactly where we needed the boat to hang when the anchor set.  I also had to study the effects of wind and tide on the drift to figure out the direction that the boat would swing to decide exactly where to drop anchor.  On our first try we were a little off and the anchor did not catch.  We pulled anchor and on the second try wound up right on the spot.

The first few minutes on a spot are really exciting.  Anticipation builds during the time it takes to get the anchor set. What will the first bait drop bring?  We had a well full of nice pinfish as well as a big 25-pound flat of sardines and some squid, but I suggested that we all send stinky sardines down for starters.  My theory is that the scent begins to draw fish into the area where your bait is hanging and as the small fish follow the scent, the big fish follow them.  Chumming using a sinking container or little lunch bags filled with chum and rocks also accomplish this, although we didn’t anticipate a need for chum this trip.

Everyone dropped their baits to the bottom and it wasn’t more than a few seconds before three of us were hooked up. All three fish were grouper, 2 shorts and Marty put the first keeper gag in the box. It always scares me a little when we get a keeper on the first drop because it seems to somehow make it worse if they shut down and you don’t catch much more. That need not have worried me today, the spot was on fire.  The fish had a nearly insatiable appetite and we were glad for them to eat our baits.  We fished this spot for a couple hours probably pulling in 8 to 10 keepers and releasing 50 or more shorts before dolphin came around and the bite slowed considerably.

It’s taken me a while to get used to the relatively new circle hook rule, and this was the first trip where I fully embraced the circle hooks and adapted my fishing style to them.  As an old bass fisherman from Arkansas I had the set the hook rule so deeply ingrained in my psyche that it was very hard for me to adapt to these new hooks. Circle hooks only require you to start to reel in when you feel that the fish has your bait.  If you set the hook hard, using a circle hook, it is likely to pull the bait away from the fish without hooking it.  Circle hooks are intended to cause much lower mortality in the fish that you release.  Based on our experience this trip, I am convinced that this is right. Nearly every fish we released swam happily away to fight another day.

The second spot that we selected to stop looked even better than the first.  It appeared to be a wreck with a lot of structure and a lot of life around.  The bottom machine showed lots of bottom fish but also large groups of fish running higher in the water table.  We anchored right on the spot on the first try and were immediately hooked up. I thought the fish pattern on the bottom machine looked like amberjack and sure enough we quickly broke off a couple big sea donkeys.  We didn’t have ideal jack bait like blue runners, but they were hungry and seemed to like our pinfish pretty well so I dropped a particularly big pinfish and slowly lowered it a little at a time toward the bottom.  This is a technique that seems to work for me when jack are around.  Start at the surface and drop the bait slowly in 5-foot increments, let it sit at each depth for a minute or two and then drop it a little further.  After my bait got down around 10 feet from the bottom, it was immediately slammed by a freight train.   I was fishing a lightweight carbon fiber rod with a high-speed Penn International reel and using 80-pound braid and this fish gave the equipment and me a workout for 10 minutes or so.  We finally boated the big donkey and got a quick pic before setting it free.

The bottom fishing on this spot was also excellent.  Husband and wife team Scott and Laura caught a keeper grouper doubleheader and Bruce got a number of nice keepers.  Laura started the day a little unsure of herself with the grouper and a little queasy with the rougher than expected seas, but once the bite was on she caught on quick and got her share of nice fish.  Brett boated a smaller amberjack and Marty boated the biggest banded rudderfish (another jack relative) that I have ever seen.

Once again, the dolphins found us and the bite slowed so we decided to head homeward and check out some spots in 45 feet of water.  I had heard of some good catches of mangrove snapper and we were nearly maxed out on grouper anyway. We briefly hit a couple more spots and finished out our gag limit and picked up some nice grunts, but no mangroves.

We were back at the dock with fish cleaned and boat washed and relaxing over a couple cold beers by 6:00. It was a good day.

Thanks to Scott and Laura, Bruce and Marty for making this an especially nice trip for all of us.  Good fishing and good company.
To the SOB that stole my computer chip – My best revenge is living well, but Karma’s gonna get you.
Merle Seamon can be reached at Onshore-Offshore Publishing 727 935-4866 or merle@onshoreoffshore.com
Very special charters are available on Another Road, contact Merle for information.