It was an AFF day on the water (PHOTOS)

In today’s world of texting, I’ve got one for all you folks in the fishing world — AFF.

And as a matter of fact, Thursday was an AFF day. So what’s an AFF? Angler friendly fishing.

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For more photos from the docks, click here

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Capt. Eric Thrasher on the Daybreak kind of gave me the idea when he described the fishing of late as  “calm” and “angler friendly.”

Anyhow it was apparent from what I saw on the docks Thursday, that it was an AFF day on the water.

The group from Memphis and Kentucky on the Daybreak filled the racks with five amberjack, seven black snapper, amberine and several red snapper.

“It was plenty fishy,” Thrasher said.

They also caught a 5 1/2-foot bull shark, that they released after capturing a few photos. Although that doesn’t sound like a huge shark, one of the guys in the group piped up and said, “It was longer than I wanted to be swimming with.”

It was an AFF day aboard the Sea Winder with Capt. Stan Phillips as his group from Texas landed some whopper king mackerel as well as red snapper, a red grouper and three barracuda. The fattest of the king, caught by Chris Seaman, tilted the scales at 42 pounds. His 4-year-old daughter, Olivia, was quick to tell me she caught the “red ones” on the board.

Capt. Phillips said they caught the king mackerel about 24 to 25 miles offshore and all in the same area on live bait.

Anglers on the Sure Thing with Capt. Phil Hessinuis and mate Tom Walker brought in a nice catch of a couple of amberjack, six red snapper, six black snapper and a gag grouper.

Capt. Tommy Carter and folks on the Blue Runner II reeled in a cobia, a couple of grouper and a limit of red snapper.

There were a lot of cobia showing up on the docks Thursday. The Shikari got in on some of the cobia action, landing two as well as some big red snapper.

“The cobia were all over the beach. It was like a war zone,” said Capt. Chris Sheppard.

Bill Reardon of Gulf Breeze landed a cobia of his own while fishing on the Gulf Breeze with Capt. Jason Hindeman. They guessed the fish weighed about 50 pounds. “It felt like 50,” Reardon said. “He was a tough dude.”

Before Thursday, Reardon said the biggest fish he ever caught was a 20-pound grouper out of Pensacola.

In addition to the cobia, the anglers on the Gulf Breeze had triggerfish, grouper, red snapper and mingo.

The party boat Destiny backed in with a pile of fish. The 65 folks aboard  definitely had an AFF day. They pulled in several stringers of mingo, red snapper, and triggerfish.

The New Florida Girl’s American Spirit with Capt. Jim Green at the helm pulled in with several red snapper, mingo, a few triggerfish and lane  snapper.

“It was a little choppy, but nice,” Green said. “It was a lot cooler with the east wind this morning. That was a good change.”

Anglers on the Special K with Capt. Andy Vaughn and mate Pat Meyers pulled in a a couple of cobia, 12 red snapper, a Spanish mackerel, four king mackerel, and three bonito.

The Checkmate with Capt. George Eller backed in with eight king mackerel, a limit of red snapper, four black snapper and a lane snapper.

Capt. Brian Howard on the Trade Winds came in with a nice catch of red snapper, mingo, lane snapper, triggerfish and white snapper.

Alabama anglers on the Sea Notes with Capt. Douglas Dietz pulled in a nice catch of red snapper, amberine, bonito and king mackerel.

Anglers from Arkansas on the Pescador III with Capt. Randy Hanshaw filled the boards with red snapper, triggerfish and mingo.

Tennessee anglers on the Huntress with Capt. Mike Graef brought in a good mix of fish. They had a couple of cobia, two king mackerel, a big triggerfish, amberine and red snapper.

“It was gorgeous after the fog lifted,” Graef said. He said they found the cobia just off the beach under some rays.

The last catch I witnessed of the day was aboard the Un Reel with Capt. Harold Loeffler and it was unreal. Tim Bible of Tennessee hauled in a 60-pound wahoo.

“It made a couple of really hard pulls,” Bible said.

Capt. Loeffler said it took about 150-yards on the first run.

“I thought we were going to run out of line,” Bible said.

Bible and buddy Steve Baier also had a few amberjack, king mackerel, red snapper and rock salmon on the racks.

Needless to say it was AFF on the water.

See you at the docks with your BFF.