cstocks
Platinum Member
That's you??? I thought it was Captain Ahab!/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif
Party Boat
- Thread starter bgott
- Start date
I caught about six, none of them keepers. As far as the fishing went, this trip kind of sucked. We ran four hours to find out there was a heavy current running that far off shore. Everyone on the boat stayed so tangled up that we ran back an hour and tried again. The holes we hit then were full of small fish, most of the time I lost my bait before it hit bottom. Our side of the boat was the sunny side, I'd drop my hook about twenty times per hole and after three or four small fish and a whole bunch of reelin' and rebaiting I'd get bored with it and go in the cabin and read my book. We'd move and the same thing would happen. We'd get into little sharks and they'd screw everything up. There was close to a hundred people on the boat, there's not that many fish there for that many people in a day.
cstocks
Platinum Member
Maybe that is not the bay boat we went out on. Now that I think about it the New Buccaneer is the boat we went offshore on. We went one time a few years ago with some friends and did not catch squat because we were on the side of the boat. The secret to catching fish on an offshore party boat is to get there early and secure your place on the back of the boat. You tangle up a lot less and have a better chance of catching some real fish. I believe you can bring your own tackle but will not be able to cast out from the boat unless you are in the back. A friend of mine went out on the same boat, brought his own tackle and bait and got a spot in the back of the boat. He nailed a couple of king mackerel and I don't remember what all else. I do remember that he did considerably better than the folks on the side and the front of the boat.
On the trip we made there was one poor guy who got seasick before we even cleared the jetties. He was green around the gills and laid on one of the benches at the tables inside the boat all day! Poor fella! We didn't catch any keepers but still had a good time. First and only time to go out of sight of land.
On the trip we made there was one poor guy who got seasick before we even cleared the jetties. He was green around the gills and laid on one of the benches at the tables inside the boat all day! Poor fella! We didn't catch any keepers but still had a good time. First and only time to go out of sight of land.
Thomas
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Looks like you had a grand of a time. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif
DAP
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Can't tell for sure from the photo, but those look like Maco. Good eatin.
bmac
Veteran Member
Chris,
Your description of the sea-sick fellow brought back some not-so-good memories for me. As a kid, I lived in Tampa for about 5 years. My dad would occasionally take my brother and me out on a party boat for a day of fishing. Invariably, I would spend most of the day laying down on one of the bench seats inside praying to die. Would go out periodically to fish, turn green again and go back to my bench. We would usually bring back a load of grouper. My most memorable trip was when I hooked (what I was told was) a sand shark. Weighed about 35 lbs and took the deck hand quite awhile to land it. I think that was my last trip on a party boat (probably 35 years ago).
Your description of the sea-sick fellow brought back some not-so-good memories for me. As a kid, I lived in Tampa for about 5 years. My dad would occasionally take my brother and me out on a party boat for a day of fishing. Invariably, I would spend most of the day laying down on one of the bench seats inside praying to die. Would go out periodically to fish, turn green again and go back to my bench. We would usually bring back a load of grouper. My most memorable trip was when I hooked (what I was told was) a sand shark. Weighed about 35 lbs and took the deck hand quite awhile to land it. I think that was my last trip on a party boat (probably 35 years ago).
cstocks
Platinum Member
My boat is only sixteen foot long so we never venture past the end of the Galveston jetties. At one point a few years ago we got into shark fishing along the jetties. I had two big Penn reels, one call Big Moe and the other called Little Flo, that I would rig with cut bait and toss out on the bottom and watched them as we fished for whatever else was biting on our smaller rod and reels.
One night we caught a four ft. black tip shark. After landing it we bled it but forgot to gut it. We tossed it in the ice chest and fished most of the night before heading home. Only as we headed home did I realize that I did not gut the shark so I did that as soon as we got home. We went to bed and that afternoon I cleaned our fish and cut the shark up crosswise into steaks and put a couple on the grill. They smelled good and looked good as we dished out a big serving on our plates. My wife and I were eating about the third bite when we both suddenly got this wide look in our eyes and our mouths puckered like we were sucking on green persimmons. The shark meat had spoiled and there was a small layer of blood between the skin and the meat giving it a rancid, rotten taste and we both got a bite of that foul blood at the same time. The best way I can describe how bad it taste is to compare it with dead fish lying on the rocks... two or three days dead, that you would pick up and cook and eat. That shark was the foulest, nastiest tasting meat I have ever put into my mouth. It was so bad that not only did we dump the shark steaks into the garbage but we also dumped all the other food on our plates as well. We were so nauseated and disgusted by that rank taste that our appetites were totally ruined. That was about seven or eight years ago. Neither of us has touched a bite of shark meat since that day. They tell me that if you do not bleed and gut sharks promptly and properly that urea or ureic acid or something like that forms and ruins the meat. I don't know what happens, I just know that I have never had a craving for shark since that bad experience.
One night we caught a four ft. black tip shark. After landing it we bled it but forgot to gut it. We tossed it in the ice chest and fished most of the night before heading home. Only as we headed home did I realize that I did not gut the shark so I did that as soon as we got home. We went to bed and that afternoon I cleaned our fish and cut the shark up crosswise into steaks and put a couple on the grill. They smelled good and looked good as we dished out a big serving on our plates. My wife and I were eating about the third bite when we both suddenly got this wide look in our eyes and our mouths puckered like we were sucking on green persimmons. The shark meat had spoiled and there was a small layer of blood between the skin and the meat giving it a rancid, rotten taste and we both got a bite of that foul blood at the same time. The best way I can describe how bad it taste is to compare it with dead fish lying on the rocks... two or three days dead, that you would pick up and cook and eat. That shark was the foulest, nastiest tasting meat I have ever put into my mouth. It was so bad that not only did we dump the shark steaks into the garbage but we also dumped all the other food on our plates as well. We were so nauseated and disgusted by that rank taste that our appetites were totally ruined. That was about seven or eight years ago. Neither of us has touched a bite of shark meat since that day. They tell me that if you do not bleed and gut sharks promptly and properly that urea or ureic acid or something like that forms and ruins the meat. I don't know what happens, I just know that I have never had a craving for shark since that bad experience.