For today's 12 hour deep sea fishing trip by the partyboat Capt. John, the weather gods continued to smile, with seas of 1-2 ft. still hanging in there.

Leaving Galveston's Pier 19 with 82 of us fishermen aboard, Capt. Tony Langston once again pointed the Capt. John to the south, knifing through the light swell. Our first stop was at a rock formation in 100 ft. of water about 45 miles offshore. This stop resulted in an assortment of bottom fish, a few kingfish and about 140 red snapper being decked.

The next two stops were in the Claypile area, both over rocks in 130 to 150 ft. of water about 65 miles offshore. These stops produced amberjack to 50 lbs., mangrove snapper, vermilion snapper, red snapper, kingfish, ling, etc.

After those two Claypile stops, with time running out and the Spanish sardine and cut squid baits having done their job, we headed in with another of those multi-species catches. The day's catch included:
?Ģ 1 queen triggerfish
?Ģ 9 gray triggerfish
?Ģ 5 kingfish
?Ģ 1 creolefish
?Ģ 10 rockhind grouper
?Ģ 20 blue runner
?Ģ 2 ling of 30 and 45 lbs.
?Ģ 18 mangrove snapper to 12 lbs.
?Ģ 4 lane snapper
?Ģ 301 vermilion snapper to 4 lbs.
?Ģ 150 red snapper to 10 lbs.
?Ģ 6 amberjack of 22 to 51 lbs.

Mike Richardson, Athens, with a red snapper limit to 5 lbs., 6 vermilion snapper, a mangrove snapper and a kingfish.
Ronnie Vaughn, Dallas, had a red snapper limit to 5 lbs., a kingfish and 6 vermilion snapper to 3 lbs.
Jon Newman, Dallas, with vermilion snapper, a red snapper limit, a kingfish and the trip's heaviest fish, a really nice 51 lb. amberjack that hit a small piece of cut squid, fished about 15 feet off the rock.
Tom Hargrove, Columbus, Georgia; had a red snapper limit and an amberjack limit of 2 that went 25 and 30 pounds.
Greg Moliere, Houston, with a red snapper limit, vermilion snapper and a 22 lb. amberjack, his first one.
Patrick Lemire, Texas City: My catch was made up of 6 vermilion snapper to 3 lbs., 2 mangrove snapper of 6 lbs. each and a red snapper limit to 6 lbs.

Today's catch was a good one, but as in most cases, there was a missed opportunity which could have resulted in another prize coming aboard. At the first claypile stop, a ling had been hooked about ten spots down the rail. I put a whole squid out at about ten feet down on a mono leader, hoping the first ling had a running mate that wanted a squid snack. There was no second ling, but a big wahoo did join the scene - it ate the squid, cutting my mono leader in the process. This one was definitely an adult, an estimated 70-80 pounds. It flashed away and didn't come back; even the misses add to the excitement of fishing offshore. Without my polarized sunglasses, I wouldn't have seen any of this.

To see what your catch results will be, call the Capt. John's office at Galveston's Pier 19 to make your reservations. The phone numbers are 409-762-8808 and 713-223-4853. Don't forget your polarized sunglasses - wearing them gives you a view of what's going on below the surface and adds another dimension to the total experience of offshore partyboat fishing.