Florida fishing with Carlos Bastos

[Taxman]

Was in Florida for a tax seminar that I stretched into a mini vacation in the Tampa / St Pete area

Met up with Carlos of Andrea's Toy fame for some southern style bottom fishing

We relived past memories and created new ones.

Shoot out about 35 miles to start, first spot slow. Made a move and started catching. For the first 3 quarters of the day we had plenty of action with short red grouper plus misc other fish. We were catching Lane Snapper, Mangrove snapper, yellow tail snappers, grunt, porgies plus the various squirrel fish and lizard fish

My daughter hooks into something big and thinks she has been pulled into the bottom. Carlos takes the pole, pulls it free and gives to me. After a few minute battle we have an 8 - 10 pound amber jack in the boat.

After bouncing around off shore to steady action but all short grouper Carlos tried one more spot inshore. This was the spot. At one point my wife daughter and I all hooked keeper reds at the same time. My daughter's boy friend joined the action and caught a nice sized keeper as well

We were able to carry a nice cooler full of fillets onto the plane while leaving a few meals for Carlos and mates

We had a great day on the water and looking forward to doing it again next year

Will try to add pictures later or maybe Carlos will see this and add a few