Lake Champlain United - Forums

Last week I had the chance to jump on the "Thunder" for an 8hr trip out of Hernando Beach Florida. This is
about 45 miles north of Tampa on the Gulf coast so we have to go out a 20+ mile run to get to good water.

http://www.thunderpartyboat.com/

Here is a pic of the 40 footer parked in it's slip;


The boat loaded at 8am and fishermen got the choose position according to who signed in that morning 1st...
The best spots were on the stern, due to the current and anchor positioning... This is a smaller party boat
than I am used to, and the head was not something a woman would use. (Theresa stayed ashore) They got 25 fisherman
on at a rate of $70 per person.

This is a shot of a crabber coming in after setting pots... The dredged chanel goes out 5 miles, so boat traffic is
tight till you get out a ways..


We started fishing after 1.5 hrs of a run under power till we got 24 miles out. We fished rock piles and man made
reefs that the captain has on GPS. It started about 30feet and we ended up at 35ft by end of day. One the
1st spot we saw a seas turtle working the area off the boat as we setup. Dropping down the stingray chunk,
the action started.. One after another.... fun fest... Grunts, Sand Perch, Grouper, Pufferfish, Sheepshead,
spanishmackrel, black spotters, hog fish, sea bass, and the ugliest of them all a mother in law fish... It has
internal spines that sting your hand if you handle them. When you get one, you need to cut it off...

Groupers were out of season, but were there in numbers.. One guy using shrimp and a bucktail jig got over 30 of them.

Here is a video of him pulling in a 21" grouper;



Here is shot of a cooler with a sheepshead, a Spanish mackerel and some sea bass... (all good eaters as well
as the grunts)


It ended up being a great trip, more variety than I have ever seen on a deep sea trip. These guys go it down....
Grouper opens April 1st and the real fun is on at that point... The grunts made great medallion fillets. The mate
filleted ever fish on the 2hr ride back to shore... He handed out bags of your fish ready to freese or eat.

Without Theresa to take pics on the trip, I don't have many great shots.. But the day was a blast. On the way in,
were followed by dolphins jumping beside the boat in the channel, and many pelicans looking for a meal
of the cut fish guts...


I would suggest these guys anytime.. I heard stories of the last trip pulling in a 100+lb stingray they had to
cut loose after pics.. Also, goliaths have been hooked up too off this boat... What fun that woulda been.

I'll be back next winter for another trip... More to come.

Thanks Matt for sharing your off shore experience. It's always exciting and it's impressible the different fish you may catch at any given time.
These are all very tasty fish... Hope you enjoyed lots of good eating.

Got to love those sheepies! i just got back from GA and caught quite a few fish myself. Hopefully next year i can go after some snook and or cobia!

What a riot...thanks for the look Matt.

Florida fishing rocks! I did a three day trip with the Viking out of tarpon springs and we caught 33 species. You should look into the overnight middle grounds trip.

sounds like great fishing and lots of fun and good eating to.