Monster red snapper!

Boogan1 said:

Planned a little fun trip for Father's day with two other dads, my friends Barry Barnes and Jeff Snethen. We were taking it easy today, left the dock at 8am. Hit the bait guy and bought some bait then had a nice ride out 30 miles to the spot we were going to fish. Dropped the first bait and it wasn't ten seconds and we were tied into our first snapper. We were actually trying for grouper because we knew we would catch snapper too. After catching four on the first spot we decided there were too many snapper to weed through trying for a grouper. Moved to another spot a couple of miles away. Barry had fished that spot on Wednesday and said they got broke off twice so we decided to give it a try. Barry and Jeff both dropped baits. I was messing with something on the boat and it was five minutes or so before I was ready to fish. They had neither one had a bite. I hooked on a big cigar minnow and dropped all the way to the bottom in 190ft of water. I reeled up two cranks and waited. I immediately felt my minnow tugging like something was after him and then the pole doubled over. I started reeling and got two cranks before the drag slipped a little. I pumped the rod and got two more cranks. The drag slipped again and the fish gained a little. I pumped the rod again and got three cranks that time. My rod was almost bent double. Everything about the fight was telling me I had hooked up with a big grouper that was trying to get back into his hole. I pumped the rod again and gained three more cranks and had the fish coming my way. My left forearm burned as I kept pressure on the rod and reeled as hard as I could. Finally the fish just became like dead weight just like a grouper does. My hand was cramping as saw my weight coming up. I was stunned to see red coming up through the water but there it was, a huge red snapper! We gaffed the fish and brought it aboard and I about collapsed. I was beat, but I had won. After pictures and high fives Barry dropped down and caught another nice snapper and Jeff caught a big mingo. We fished a little longer but never did hook up a grouper. We headed back in shortly after noon, cleaned fish and the boat and was back at the house by 3. What a great Father's day! View attachment 138165 View attachment 138167 View attachment 138169 View attachment 138171

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