Some friends invited me offshore today (9/7) and told me we were making a long run. I met them at the ramp at 6:00, loaded and launched their 25 Bluewater and we were off to catch bait at 6:45. With the livewells loaded, we were off and running by 8:00. First stop was some 50 miles off and it was loaded with cobia, but we only managed one short one before they disappeared. 2 miles later, we were on another spot loaded with amberjack and put two keepers in the boat, releasing numerous short ones. Jay then said to wind them up and break out the beanbags as the next stop was 20 miles. When we arrived, I caught a big gag and an even more impressive mangrove snapper. Several more gags and some mangos hit the deck, before we moved to a wreck, 10 miles away. We never did anchor on this wreck properly, but the mango's were on fire and they kept chewing. They were mixed in with a sporadic gag bite, both small and legal sized. Before we left this spot, the 5 of us on board had tallied 25 mangos up to 24", and close to 1/2 our limit of grouper. During this foray, a cobia followed one of the gags to the surface, resulting in the deployment of a flat line with a pinfish. About 5 minutes later, this rod bent over and a legal cobia was added to our cooler. Not one to give up, Jay said he had a ledge about 2 miles away and when we dropped baits on this spot, up came another 13 gag grouper in a half hour, filling out limit of grouper (24 gags and 1 8# red)

This does not even count the numerous Red Snapper we caught and had to release due to the seasonal closure. We gave up at 3:00 as we had no more room to keep fish, nor ice to put on them. Punching "Home" into the GPS showed a 65 mile run to get there, so the beanbags were deployed and a couple of us took a nap on the way in. Back to the dock at 5:15

Total catch in the box for the 5 of us was 24 Gag grouper, 1 red grouper, 2 AJ's 25 mangos, and a cobia.