A bit of a bumpy ride today out of Crystal River and it's definitly been a while since we've had a NE wind blowing. I had Ken and Jenny on board for a Crystal River grouper trip and once again, we trolled up a great catch of keeper gags. The seas were definilty a bit bumpy and I almost didn't try to make it out; but we took our time and eased our way west. We sent down the Rapal x-raps in the blue mackerel color and they did their job. The couple had their grouper limit by 11am and the big grouper today went 19lbs. Some added excitment for the trip was the big grouper today actually stripped out the gears in my shimano spheros 8000 and we had to hand line the fish in. I put on my tarpon gloves and eventually brought the fish to the boat. A really fun morning of fishing and I thank you both for a great time. Here's Ken and Jenny with their Crystal River gag groupers... Capt. Dan
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I dusted off the trolling plugs today and they called up the grouper. I had the Lent family on board out of Crystal River and they did great. After seeing yesterday's conditons with less and less floating grass, I had a feeling we could troll up a grouper. I did make a stop and fill the live well with pin fish, but for today's Crystal River Charter, we didn't need them. We approached the first spot, sent down a Rapala x-rap and fish on! We caught several hefty grouper and even had a couple take us back to their house. The bite slowed on the low tide and nothing much happned for the afternoon hours. We wrapped it up around 2pm and I thank you all for the really fun day. Here's the Lent family with some beautiful Crystal River grouper... Capt. Dan
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Another good trip out of Crystal River and some more quality shallow water grouper. Rob and Tom were on board with me today and we began with some inshore fishing, before we ran a little ways offshore. The trout action was steady in kelp grass patches just outside the salt river, but mostly shorts with a keeper here and there to get our day going. While the guys were catching the trout, I was filling the live well with pin fish getting ready to run down a grouper. With a couple dozen frisky baits, we made our run, anchored down and fish on. A couple real nice gags came aboard and yes, a few got the best of us again. The team did great and with the skies turing dark and thunder in the distance, we called it a day. Thank you both for a fun trip and look forward to seeing you again soon... Capt. Dan
Crystal River scallops and grouper were on the menue today and Jason sr. & jr. did great. I picked up the father and son team at the Plantation on Crystal river and we made our way to the scallop grounds. A low morning outgoing tide were the conditions, so I suggested scalloping on the low tide and it worked out great. The guys had a good bag of scallops by 11am and while they were scalloping, I was filling the live well with pin fish. We iced down the scallops and made our way to the shallow ledges and found a couple grouper. A few shorts, a keeper and a couple big dog break offs got the best of us while we finished out the afternoon and the approching storms encouraged us to call it a day. Thank you both for a fun time and I'll look forward to seeing you next time. Here's Jason jr. with his first keeper grouper... Capt. Dan
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