My last offshore fishing trip was in 2019, pre-Covid. Finally the five year hiatus is over and I have been fortunate to make two trips this year. Prior to the trip this past weekend I had picked a new two-speed lever drag offshore reel and was eager to give it a try. As we were approaching the target area of the McGrail Bank, the boat passed over a 100 foot high pinnacle that appeared to have a nice cloud of fish hovering over the high spot. I was running the boat at the time, so an immediate U-turn was made, I positioned us right over the peak, then danced down the stairs to the cockpit to grab my rod. On the first drop I sent my favorite glow grubtail jig to the bottom and immediately hooked up on a strong fish. Only it was a little too strong, and I soon realized why some of my fishing buddies refuse to use my grubtail jigs. Clearly it was a big Amberjack, and I am just as clearly not as young as I was in 2005 when I boated the state record 121 lb AJ. It took about 20 minutes and some serious sweating but I finally got him to the boat. Turned out to be only 80 Lbs, but still a good size AJ.
As per our usual pattern of behavior, on both trips we ended up with packed coolers including Red Snapper, Grouper, Porgies, Golden Tilefish, and Blackfin Tuna as evidenced by the photos below:
Seas were flat when we headed back to Galveston, but 15 miles from the jetties, and about an hour prior to daylight we were hit by a major league squall line with howling wind, lightning, 5 foot seas, and rain so thick we could not see the bow of the boat. We were pleased to finally make it back to Clear Lake and have the opportunity to clean fish for about 3 hours. The icing on the cake was the Monday evening dinner where we enjoyed fresh tuna sashimi for the first time in many years.
