Fishing visitors fall for the gulf hook, line and sinker
Five grouper and 100 grunts later, the sun sets on another deep-sea fishing trip.
By EILEEN SCHULTE
Published June 8, 2003
CLEARWATER - Out on the water, cell phones didn't work and no land was in sight.
The gulf was slightly choppy and the sky was overcast.
A perfect day for fishing.
Everything was quiet when Lynne McCrum's thick, 80-pound test fishing line jerked sharply.
Her pole bowed toward the churning water behind the Double Eagle III.
"My first bite of the day!" she said.
The 34-year-old nurse from San Diego dug her feet into the side of the deck.
She had hooked something big and it was fighting for its life.
As she reeled, two dolphins circled within a yard of the boat, spinning around and playing in the water, eyeing the fish being pulled up from the 75-foot depths.
Finally, McCrum yanked and out popped a fat 24-inch black grouper.
The dolphins were waiting for McCrum to throw it back, but it was big enough to keep.
With no fish tossed to them, the dolphins, ever smiling, swam over to the port side of the boat, where kids were throwing frozen sardines overboard.
It was SeaWorld meets a cable TV fishing program.
Eighteen people were on an eight-hour reef fishing cruise Tuesday aboard the Double Eagle III, one of several charter boats docked at the Clearwater Marina.
Captain Joe Swiatek, 21, smoking Marlboros and wearing jean shorts and a Bucs T-shirt, sat on a blue vinyl chair and steered the 88-foot catamaran with his feet, taking it 21 miles out to sea.
He makes $100 a day taking tourists and locals into the gulf at 13.2 knots.
"My life goal? I want to be a captain on an $8-million marlin tournament fishing boat," he said. "I know one guy who makes $100,000 a year."
For now, he's getting experience on the catamaran, along with his mate, Tucker Reese, 27, a graduate of Western Illinois University.
"This is my office," said Reese, drinking a Red Bull and looking out of the panoramic windows of the wheelhouse with nothing but whitecaps and clouds in front of him.
On the two-hour ride to a fishing reef, the talk turned to seasickness. Swiatek said that although the Double Eagle is so stable it "could have survived The Perfect Storm," there have been some "big puking parties," especially in 10-foot seas.
But on this day, with 2- to 3-foot waves, no one was getting green in the gills.
The boat stopped.
"Okay, folks, you can let your lines down now," Swiatek said.
"C'mon, kitty, kitty," said Craig Smith. "A couple more beers and they'll start biting."
Devante Racoma caught a grunt as big as an oversized pinfish.
"That's pan fry," he said.
Then Mike "Colorado" Healy of Boulder, Colo., caught an 8-pound red grouper, which was tossed into the cooler bloody and gasping, gills and fins flapping on the ice.
The dolphins came back to the port side, jumping in the waves.
"Ten to one odds those rascals will follow us," said Glenn Davis, 48, a retired U.S. marshal.
They did, to the chagrin of the anglers, who said they scare away the grouper.
Whether it was the dolphins' fault or not, it was a slow day on the Double Eagle. The take? Five grouper and 100 grunts.
Kevin Denoncourt, an assistant manager at a Winn-Dixie, defended the sport with a bumper sticker proverb:
"The worst day of fishing is better than the best day at work."
If you go
Double Eagle deep-sea fishing offers half-day trips for $35 for adults and $25 for children; full-day trips for $50 for adults and $45 for children. Tackle and bait included. Breakfast, lunch and snacks are available, but it's not a bad idea to bring your own cooler with food and drinks. The 88-foot and 65-foot catamarans are docked at the Clearwater Marina. For reservations, call (727) 446-1653.
