ST PETESRBURG TIMES, March 18, 2005
By TERRY TOMALIN, Times Outdoors Editor
GULF OF MEXICO - Fifty miles offshore, anchored 135-feet above a 2-foot limestone ledge, I felt a nibble. "Got one," I told Craig Lahr as I struggled to lift the fish off the bottom. "It feels pretty big." For a moment I thought the fish had taken the bait into the rocks. But with each half-crank of the reel, I gained a few inches of line. After five minutes of hard pumping and reeling, a fat red grouper lay on the deck. "That has got to be a 20-pounder," Lahr said. "Nice fish." It had been several years since I caught a grouper that big. Hoping there were others of similar size below, I dropped another bait over the side.
"Got one," I said. "This one feels even bigger." What are the odds of hooking two big reds within minutes of each other? Slim, I thought. But after more pumping and reeling, a 25-pound fish dropped on the deck. "I can't remember the last time I saw two reds that big caught on the same trip," Lahr said. "It has been years." I attributed the noteworthy catch to a good captain and dumb luck.
Craig Lahr shows off a 25-pound red grouper, one of two large grouper caught back to back, that was reeled in on his charter boat, Team Gator, in about 135 feet of water.
