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This past Friday 10/01 marked a re-opening date for FL's Red Snapper fishing. I decided to go after my limit of two. Daybreak saw me entering St. Andrew's bay on my Montauk 17. I stopped just inside the inlet to gather some live bait by casting 2" Gulp minnows in search of small croakers...my first three casts paid off in 3 keeper flounder...I fished them to almost my limit and headed through the inlet later than planned considering the impending weather change at about 0930 arriving the wreck USS Grierson some 9 miles out around 1030. It took longer than usual to get there because I trolled up three bait Bonita on the way. I would only have a couple of hours fish time on the wreck because the afternoon weather showed NNE wind gusts to 30 against an incoming tide. By 1300 I had two good keeper Red Snapper amongst some Triggers and Sea Bass aqnd decided to wrap it up as the wind was starting to kick in. Just as I was pulling a rod from its holder it tugged. By the time I got it in my hands it overbent due a too tight drag. I leaned back and the rod tip about came to my wrist. The fight was on. Initially I thought I had a roaming Cobia (they have become common since many left the oil rigs of Louisana due Deepwater Horizon). I saw 100 yards of 20 pound test scream from my reel before I could say "Oh
Sh-t". After about a half hour of steadily losing ground (and more line) to this freight train I started thinking "big" Cobia or "big, BIG" Wahoo; but another 15 minutes passed and I glimpsed of a large grayish shadow about 20 feet below (in 70 feet of very clear water)...Shark...15 minutes later (one full hour all told) she finally succombed and surfaced along my starboard side, all 8 feet and about 250 pounds of her, Tiger stripes gleaming, with a head about 1 1/2 foot across, and a swept upper tale that could have had her mistaken for a Thresher, save for the distinct striping. It was at this moment I realized that it was not the hour-long battle that had been throwing me all over the boat (hence, the several black and blued which surfaced that evening) but the weather. The Gulf around me turned into a veritable snowfield of whitecaps with the waves a foot above my gunwhales on either side. The wind gusts had kicked to 30, the tide turned and I was hard anchored against it all with a big fish still attached to the boat. I quickly grabbed my knife, cut the Tiger loose...she just hung there surrealy suspended for at least thirty seconds until I poked her with my rod butt and got her slowly gliding on her way to her next meal. I went forward and was finally able to coax the anchor loose and put it with its two hundred feet of line on the deck, then went amidships and prayed for a quick engine start...to which the old 90 Johnson complied readily with a roar that said let's get the heck outta here! I gently moved forward in gear as I got a GPS bearing on the inlet but could only make 8 knots without pounding the boat too badly Because of the incoming (shorebound) tide/current I basically surfed in making sure of not coming too fast off the front of one wave so as to bury my smirk into the back of the next one. The Gulf was absolutely foaming but the Montauk settled in like a trooper. My only fear at this point was that I might have to lay to offshore because the inlet turbulence was probably twice the four foot seas I was experiencing. I radioed a fishing vessel at the inlet. To my delight he told me he could see the chaos offshore but that the inlet and two miles south (toward me) was fairly calm...a rarity and a blessing. I eased the Montauk to 12 knots and made it to much safer waters within 25 minutes...dry as always in a Whaler...I never for a moment doubted my boat...because I've been in similar past situations. I have learned about myself that my wisdom, unlike my whiskey, does not improve with age...knowing this, I never leave my Whaler behind.
Edited by Ralph Iorio on 10/04/10 - 3:29 PM
1989 Montauk 17 w 1989 Johnson 90
I'm envious... How big do the Red Snapper get? Do you have any photos of the Tiger?
Thanks for sharing,
Norm
1999 280 Conquest w/twin 225 Mercs
"When the people fear their government there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty."
Thomas Jefferson
My snappers were moderate around 4 - 5 lbs. but great dinner with the flounder. No, given all I had to do, the camera was the last thing I could reach for...woulda been great if someone else were aboard...the funny thing is that I dive that wreck often and never seen a Tiger, just some Nurses and Hammerheads...food for thought next ime...hope she remembers I freed her :o)
Hey guys...I didn't mean to make the incident sound life threatening...they were just four footers and made things sloppy. Actually in my younger...slightly less dumber...days I remember getting my Whaler caught up in seven foot seas Bluefishing in the Acid Waters somewhere between the coasts of Long Island, NY and Highlands, NJ. A darned rouge wave broke over the bow and filled the boat...a throttle thrust dropped the stern a couple of feet below the water and it emptied itself and popped up like a cork. About 15 minutes later we intercepted a radio call and spotted two anglers swimming next to a 23 foot Aquasport that capsized...my '66 Sakonnett made it to port with the four of us in life jackets and snuggled to the console. The U.S.C.G. boat that came for the Aquasport escorted us back and theirs was a Whaler too, but a real big one!
