I had donated a 6 hr charter for two at the coasters end of the year forum bash to help raise money for a little girl named Isabella who has neuroblastoma(cancer).

Jim and Ray were the lucky winners of the trip and they brought a friend Terry along.These guys were a blast to fish with. I do not think we left the dock before the razzing started but it was light hearted and funny.

With a livewell loaded with a mix of pinfish, shrimp and whitebait we were ready. Our first couple of stops we had a slow bite but managed a few trout and one nice keeper in the box but I told them the better bite was going to be later in the afternoon. We made a few moves and then I made a run so we could be set up before the tide really started to move. As we start to troll to the area I want to fish I see a huge snook and she moves off slowly and I keep an eye on her. I figured after a short time she would feed with the water starting to move and with us on one side and a oyster bar on the other side of her we are in good position. So we throw a few baits out in the area where she is sitting but o no here comes a boat and he trolls right over her and that is done. So I move on to an area that should be holding snook and it was but they were slow to bite at first. Then I put a cast under the groves and get instant hook up and hand the rod off to Jim but the short delay on the hand off was all this large snook needed to blast deeper under the groves and break off, Jim never had a chance. Then I place a sweet cast for Ray and hand him the rod. Within seconds I see his line jump and I say you got one,he reels down on the snook and the fight is on. with a great tail walk and gill shake she is clear of the groves and Ray gets her boatside. She gives one last head shake on gets her own release but Ray is stoked. Now he makes a nice cast in the same area. The current takes the bait under the danger zone and Ray latches into a beast, deep under the cover and he feels like he needed a 4/0 to get her out but they parted ways once the groves hit the braid but was his adrenalin pumping. In all the excitement Terry has gotten overheated from the sun and I am giving him gatorade and cold wet towels to put on his head and neck so we decide to call it a day and head back to the ramp. I tell Terry that the ride will make him feel better and the wind will help cool him off. Sure enough he starts to feel alot better and luckily it became overcast and the onshore breeze kicked in. So I tell them I have a spot with the conditions we had would be holding some keeper reds for the fish fry they were looking to do that night as long as Terry was feeling up to it. Well I am glad he was. We stopped in the area I trolled in and anchored up and we had a great breeze and Terry was feeling good. I chummed behind the boat with a positive feeling since the mullet were thick which was a good sign. Sure enough after about 15 minutes the first red was hooked up and then if your cast was good you were either catching a red or needing another bait. Well they got their 3 keeper reds and caught a few that were a little bigger but they finished the day like champs with all of them catching reds. They even asked me to catch one since they were done so I couldn't upset my customers and I got one out of the mix. Ray had the hot hand and cracked me up when he started saying( when the bite was really on) " One Shrimp--One Red " it was funny but true.
They finished the day out with trout snook and 15 Redfish!!!


Here is Terry,Ray and Jim from left to right.

 Isabella

Outstanding... One shrimp, one red... can't beat that!

Way to go Captain and thanks for the great report!