# Offshore 50 Miles out of St. Petersburg, Florida



## SnookMook (Jan 7, 2004)

_*A Birthday Offshore Charter Scratches Two Off The Fish Bucket List*

A birthday offshore fishing trip with five good buddies turned out to be a fantastic trip which enabled me to scratch two keeper size fish off my lifetime catch list.

I’d say being able to scratch two fish off what I now call the fish “bucket list” makes for a fine day of fishing on your birthday.

We left the dock at John’s Pass at 7 a.m. sharp. Our destination was a spot approximately 50 miles due west in 160 feet of water.

The weather was absolutely perfect and the Gulf of Mexico was flat as glass. An expanse of virtual, bath water as I described it.

I’ve got to hand it to Capt. Tom Kane “TK” of T-Kat Charters and his first mate, Mike. Over the years I’ve caught probably between 50-60 short red grouper. However, on this trip, I was able to not only catch my very first keeper red grouper, but a total of three with the biggest measuring 28 inches. My third keeper went into the boat total which reached our maximum limit of two per person at 12 fish.


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The other fish, which was a first for me, was a dolphin (mahi mahi) which I caught on the way back after bottom fishing several spots. Capt. Tom spotted floating debris and stopped to check for either a school of dolphin or tripletail, which are known to be attracted to such floating objects.

Capt. Tom’s expertise as on offshore skipper paid off after the third piece of debris we spotted had a school of dolphin on it. Mike, the fist mate, handed me my spinning rod. He had pre-rigged it for such an opportunity and hooked it up with a live cigar minnow.

I made a cast, and the school of dolphin went into a frenzy with an immediate hookup of my first dolphin. A short fight and a few jumps later, I had the fish in the boat. It wasn’t a trophy fish, but a nice 27 inch “schoolie” as they say, is a good enough first dolphin for me.










All in all it was a great offshore, deep sea fishing trip. We also caught our boat limit of American red snapper. My biggest was 25 inches and made for a fine dinner Saturday night.

I also caught a big, beautiful 26 inch scamp grouper which also happened to be the first fish hooked at the very first spot we fished. We caught two scamp back to back at that spot, the second measuring 23 inches.

Capt. Tom said that was rare and even got on the radio to brag to a fellow Capt. buddy of his. I bet that spot has a new notation on it in Capt. Tom’s GPS book.

There was even one spot where the fire alarms went off, as is red grouper, which are affectionately know as fire trucks to offshore anglers. We must have caught eight of our keeper reds from this spot and had threw back over a dozen shorts.

This spot yielded the biggest fish of the day. A 32 inch red grouper caught by my friend Dave (Big Mac) McDonald. There was no doubt it was the big fish pot winner from the moment it came over the rail.










Through the day we also had a mix of gag grouper and mangrove snapper, along with two king mackerel.

All in all it was great birthday trip which is now becoming a yearly tradition. This is the second year we’ve gone with Capt. Tom. Last year he was the first mate for his friend Capt. Chris Diehl, who relocated to Panama City.

Something tells me this birthday tradition is going to continue, and we’ll be booking Capt. Tom Kane again next year.

My fishing buddies are already marking their calendars._

Here's some more photos:


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## RuddeDogg (Mar 20, 2004)

Awesome Mook. You keep postin like this and I just might end up down there lookin ya up.


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## bbcroaker (Jan 6, 2005)

WOW! Nice fish!


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## ledweightII (Apr 4, 2008)

very nice!


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## seajay (Dec 18, 2005)

Awsome Mook. Nice Genuine's and Grouper. :fishing::beer:


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