First (Real) Offshore Adventure

Hello fishermen and woman. Today I will be sharing my first offshore fishing trip story. My grandad has always said that offshore fishing is the best! He says you almost always limit out on snapper and other fish. I have never really been offshore (except for one time but it was super rough and we didn’t catch anything) but we decided the next time I went down there, we would go! And we did! My grandad always says that when I’m not down there, the weather is perfect, and whenever I go down there, it is rough. But not this time! It was calmer where we were (which was 23 miles off shore) than in a lake! My grandad told me two things about offshore fishing that I didn’t believe at first. He said that right when your weight hits the bottom you will have a fish eating your bait. He also said that a ling will come to the boat and wait until you throw out food. I was thinking about that right when we got to our spot. I opened the bail and let it drop all the way to the bottom until I felt the weight hit the bottom. I reeled it up a few feet and right away I got hammered! I let him eat it for a second, and then I set the hook. I fought it for a little while but unfortunately, it broke off! But let me jump to some good news: a few drops later, I caught the biggest red snapper of the day! It was huge! We caught several more red snapper and then moved spots. After a few minutes, giant Ling were coming up to our boat and begging for food like dogs. My Grandad flipped a sardine out and hooked one. I fought it for a while, then gave it to my dad because it was fighting so hard. He reeled it in and it was just the right size to keep. Later that day, my dad threw out a big chunk of skip jack to the very bottom on a big, off shore spinning reel. Then the game was on. Zzzzzzz –don’t you love that sound?! After a while of fighting we reeled in… a 3 foot shark! We kept it for a feast. After a little while longer out there, we hooked king fish and they stripped all our line off the reel. But, at the end of the day, I had caught three species of fish I had never caught before, and that is a successful fishing day.