West Coast Long-Range

March 25th, 2008

The Viking Superstar returned Sunday with grouper hanging all down the side of the boat!  

Capt. Carl reported:   With a loaded boat of eager fishermen aboard, we headed out Friday night at 8:00pm and started fishing at 3:00am. The first couple of spots produced a handful of Red Groupers, some mangrove snappers, and scamps. As daybreak came, the gags started biting! We had numerous stops in the first couple of hours with gags and large red groupers flying over the rails. A little after noon, the bite finally slowed down, so we bounced around catching some porgies, mangos, and scamps. For sundown, we headed over to a wreck and it was LOCK AND LOAD!! Large gags and some Red Groupers, (including the pool winner) were landed. Also, we raised and released a Goliath grouper as well.

WOW. WHAT A TRIP!!

This weekend's action on the Viking Superstar was AMAZING! We started fishing at 2:30 a.m. Saturday morning, and the action was ok. The first drop saw some mangos, vermillion snappers, and red groupers. The next one produced more of the same, along with some gag groupers. After one more stop catching a few mangos, we headed to the grouper grounds for sun-up, and they were hungry! Each stop produced more than a handful of nice gags, along with big Red Groupers and mangos. They did not stop biting until around 3:00pm.

After bouncing around a little and catching a few here and there, we stopped offshore a bit, and were welcomed by some bigger gags!! We stayed there until the sun went down, catching gag groupers, vermillion snappers, mangos, and lane snappers. We headed back to the snapper grounds after that, and the mangos were biting!!! Every stop all night long saw plenty of mango action, AND GROUPER ACTION!! Even the gags were biting all through the night! Since most people were using lighter snapper tackle, we lost quite a few, but still boated a couple handfuls of gags, along with plenty of mangos and red groupers. We made one more morning stop on a wreck and saw some AJs, which eluded us again this weekend, and saw quite a few, but most were short. With tired anglers and full boxes, we headed home.

Stainley Tainter of Marco Island, FL took the Grouper pool with what WAS an estimated 34 lb gag, but actually had a huge bite taken out of it by a shark on the way up! It still tipped the scales at 29 lbs. There were quite a few close to it too. We had over 15 gags weighing in over 20 lbs!!! Tony Muia of Brooklyn, NY took the snapper pool with a 9 lb mango (and there were lots of close ones there too!!). Tony Deluca of Jacksonville, Fl took the AJ pool with a 20 pounder. Another notable mention was Charlie West, who had his limit of both Grouper and snapper, and tons of bee-liners! We had quite a few guys who had their limits on grouper and snapper, as this was a slammer trip.

Thanks to all who joined us, and we look forward to seeing you again!  Check out the pics below…tons more in the photo gallery at www.VikingFleet.com.
--Captain Carl 

This week the Superstar will fish a 16 Hour Extended Day trip on Thursday and yet another 44 Hour Middle Grounds trip on Friday.  We still have openings on both of these.  The Gulfstar will fish a private charter on Thursday with the Hernando Fishing Club, and our usual Half Day trips on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  Get your reservation in ASAP. 727-938-5300  www.VikingFleet.com