Fishing Before the Front

[harbison]

  sltFishing Before the FRONT
A strong January front is due to hit Florida over the weekend. Traditionally fishing is very poor when the barometric pressure begins to fall. However, 'Fishing Before the FRONT' can be very good. Only one way to find out, let's go see!
First a preview:

And now the rest of the story.
Before leaving for our weekend adventure we see our home for the next 39 hours, the Florida Fisherman ll, returning from a successful 1/2 day trip. These short trips are a lot of fun. This is our Florida; fish are everywhere:



Before we leave Captain Dylan Hubbard goes over the basics:

Let's load our individual live wells full of lively pins. We are ready!

Next stop...snapper land:

Soon Johns Pass will be just a distant memory:

Before we hit our bunks for the long ride out let's visit Chef Tammy. When Tammy goes Mexican we all win:

Captain Bryon calls for battle stations. Hold on! These are not snapper:


Now that's more like it:

Oh no! Ms. Pam Baylor has caught the terrible lion fish:

Wonder if our lady from Plant City can catch the hard to fool mangrove snapper? Well!

The snapper are on fire:











Ms. Chris Andrlik, Lithia, Florida:







Mr. Willis Ellis is one proud man:

Mr. Ellis won the AJ jack pot last week with this 68.5 # monster:

Pre-front is looking really good:

OK! As the front gets closer and closer let's see what Saturday morning has to offer:

Looks like the girls are taking us to school:



But we are determined to hold our own:

Girls!  Take note:

Mr. Eric Deskins, Hudson, Florida, can teach us all a thing or two:


All gag grouper, red snapper, and trigger fish were returned to the deep to fight again.

[harbison]

Talk about a 'fight'!   The BIG boys are ready. This is all out WAR!




Pam, are you taking notes?


Wow! Mr. Roger Poulin is putting on a show for us:

Look at the color on that red grouper:

Beautiful:

Late Saturday evening, the pressure is dropping, it's getting really rough, and the fish are hiding, let's go home:

It's been a long, hard fought battle. We have lost some, and won some. But one thing is for sure! Chef Tammy's home cooked meals are ALWAYS winners:

Bunk time!  Now that was one quick, comfortable, night. It was really rough, but that 72' long, 25' wide catamaran, Florida Fisherman ll, did a good job of taming mother nature. Hard to believe it's Sunday morning and we are back home already:

How good was 'Fishing Before the Front'? Well!


Talk about proud:

Many of the larger fish were not in the jack pot. The winning AJ hit the scales @ 39.7 pounds, grouper 9.9 pounds, and snapper 8.6 pounds:

The weather was far from picture Florida perfect. Regardless, we had a safe, stable, platform from which to fish, eat, and sleep the entire trip.
Check out the short, action packed video of our trip.
   (click on the Youtube link)

   
https://youtu.be/DgLgSpWcgXw

For many of us the  best part of our great sport is sharing with fellow sportsmen/women. I hope you enjoyed this on the water, detailed, report as much as I enjoyed bringing it to you. The only thing that would have made our trip even better would have been if you were with us. Next 39 hour trip is 2/3/17. Join us! It will be an honor to feature you in our next report. Hope you are not camera shy.

  Bob Harbison  Florida Outdoor Writers Association

[Hunter 2]

Great trip!

[Still Running]

  

[fluke - u]

 

[harbison]

   Thanks guys. What an honor sharing with our NJ friends. Kina wish you would not share too much of your weather with us. That darn front that hit us over the weekend is going to drop our temperature all the way down into the high fifties. Heavy coat weather hits Florida.

[Hotrod]