Returned Sunday morning from a thirty nine hour middle grounds trip aboard the Florida Fisherman, Hubbard's Marina. This time I fished in between Mister Don Lewis, and Mister Greg Chinault, retired Department of Juvenile Justice executives, and, on the other side, the "Jersey Boyz." I was ever so eager to show Mister Kile Stevens, & Mister Brandon Caldwell, the brothers from New Jersey, why Florida is known as the fishing capital of the world. I wanted to prove to them first hand what the Florida Middle Grounds is really all about. Are the grounds really that good? Well! we shall see. I tole them to get plenty of rest on the way our, they are going to need it. Kile suggested that I call this report, "New Jersey Invades the Middle Grounds."
The trip begins:
Many of us arrive a couple of hours early to catch our own bait. Mister Teigh Hatmaker is an expert at catching pin fish from the Florida Fisherman. Teigh is hoping for some huge ARS & red grouper. Mister Craig Scott catches one of his very favorite baits, lady fish, off the Florida Fisherman's dock. Craig shows us how he prepares lady fish for a real killer grouper, and huge snapper bait. It's an art well learned. I saw mackerel, bonito, and kings, being caught trolling on the way to the grounds. Mister Mark Almestica put on quite a show for us. His, and our, reward, a beautiful king fish. What a prize! Mark had a good catch long before we reached the grounds. OK! So it takes ten hours for us to reach our destination deep into the grounds. Great fishing, Tammy's cheese burgers, and snoozing, on the way out, so what? Who cares? We still get around twenty hour of fishing time on the fabulous Florida Middle Grounds. Those five hours of night time fishing on the grounds can be most rewarding. Many epic battles between man & monster are fought, and usually lost, long before we ever see the sun. Talk about challenges! And don't forget the mangrove snapper, they love the night. In fact, Don & Greg tore them apart real early Saturday morning. We caught them all day long, never really fast, but relatively steady. And then the big boys took over, the American Red Snapper. We caught a few at night; most were caught during the day light hours. Mister Mike Miller had one heck of a fight on his hands with a monster ARS. This time, Mike won. Wow! One of our professional mates, Will, loves to show off our catch. I think both Will & Captain Hubbard are even more proud of our catch that we are. "Jersey Boyz" Mister Kile Stevens caught something I had never seen in my thirty + years of middle grounds fishing, a yellow mouth grouper. It was big & beautiful. Talk about big & beautiful those, "Boyz" from Jersey sure know how to catch our middle grounds fish. I saw them catch huge mangos, gags, tons of ARS, and gags, and red grouper. Our grounds made an impression on them, and they on us. Both are not only great fishermen, but fine young gentlemen. If they are any indication as to what the peoples of New Jersey are like, I hope we see many more from the Garden State visiting the Sun Shine State. Good job New Jersey.
We caught numerous goliath groupers. I had one take a whole ARS away from me. Our mates would hang over the side of the boat, vent them, and send them home. What a show! Our own Department of juvenile justice people, as well as, I like to call them our, "Jersey boyz" knocked them dead. I can just imagine the stories they will be telling for years to come. They, along with virtually everyone on board caught more American reds than we wanted. We picked along all day at them. Then, after Tammy's fabulous chicken & pasta dinner, we still had several hours of prime evening fishing left. The red snapper were absolutely on fire. We wanted to catch a few more mangrove snapper. Guess what? No way! The reds would give the mangos absolutely no chance. Finally, we just gave up and headed back to John's Pass. When our day on the grounds was finally over, Tammy had a huge very cold water melon waiting for us. Gosh that hit the spot! What a trip. Plenty of great food, many new friends, and loads of fish for everyone. And, to top things off, our new friends from the Garden State of New Jersey, the "Jersey Boyz" left with enough memories of the Sunshine State to last a life time. Way to go New Jersey, you did yourself, and us, proud. When "New Jersey Invades the Middle Grounds" good things happen.
Bob Harbison A native Florida recreational fisherman, and proud of it.
(didn't get to take a final pile of fish picture, raining too hard!)
Mister Teigh Hatmaker catches pin fish
Mister Craig Scott uses lady fish for bait
Mister Mark Almestica catches kings on the way to the grounds
Fighting a monster at night, Will is always there to help
Don & Greg with night mangos
Mister Mike Miller fights, and lands, a big ARS, Mister Ayala, FWC biologist, will study this fish
Will is so proud of our ARS. He likes to show them off.
"Jersey Boyz" Kile with yellow mouth grouper, Will with ARS
"Jersey Boyz" Brandon with a very respectful grounds size mangrove snapper
Brandon and a very nice red grouper, Vence, our professional mate, looks on
Don, Kile, and Greg with big ARS
Captain Mark Hubbard weighs in a "Jersey Boyz" yellow mouth grouper
Captain Hubbard weighs in Greg's jack pot winning ARS
Left this one out. We caught some really nice gags, jersey Boyz Kile
