Galveston Offshore 8/17 TOBA Trip

Headed out yesterday for a little King action with Gunner who won the trip donated to TOBA. On board was Mark (Gunner), Jeff and Soup. Soup and Jeff had not caught a King before so I was pumped to get them their first. We started out heading ESE to a rig that I had been on lots of Kings last month. Seas were a little bumpy and made for a not so enjoyable ride out to 14 miles. I believe it was at this spot that Mark caught a fairly nice sized Pompano. This spot wasn't producing like it has in the past so we headed SW from there to a following sea and made for a much better ride. Next stop produced Jeff with his first King, a nice approx. 22lber. Mark was playing with fish on the bottom and produced several BIG Lady fish and sone Bluefish that make real good Snapper bait. Left that area and still heading SW at next stop we finally put Soup on his first King and at around 25lbs. At this spot I had a first experience ever. While I was chumming for Kings some Snapper came up in the chum line and Mark started sight casting them. Now I have brought Snapper up to a chum line before but this was different. They seemed only to come up one at a time. We would spot them and Mark would cast to them, It seemed that all the other trash fish would get out of the way of the Snapper and the bait was his.LOL! We ended up with 5 keeper Snaps to 17". After toying with them and no more to come up we headed to the Buccaneer field. Found the middle of the 12 pile in the 288 block and proceeded to catch a bunch of little snaps and finally the King rod goes off and he was headed to Freeport in a hurry. This rod goes to Soup and after a nice battle we bring in this really nice around 30lber. a few minutes later the rod goes off again and I think Jeff brings in his twin brother. Action slows so we head back in the direction of Galveston. Hit a couple of spots on the way in looking for mister Ling but he was not to be foun d today. We get to the a rig near State waters and bring in another nice King in the 20lb class. Move to another spot on the way in, Jeff brings in a nice Black Drum and we finally get the last king to finish off our three man limit. All fish were in the upper 20 lb to 30 lb fish. Not the numbers I had been getting but all Kings were quality fish. All in all, I had a great time fishing with some great people. Mark it was a blast, and I think your two partners will be spoiled to King fishing. It will be hard to top their first Kings with nothing below 20 lbs. Oh yea some where in the stops we picked up one nice Spanish Mackrel also. Total for the day was 6 Kings, Five Snapper, 1 Pompano, and 1 Spanish, 2 Sharks 2' 1/2" to 3' (released). Mark proved to be the Ladyfish King with many big Ladies.