Fishing heats up as temperature rises

With the temperature warming up, so does the fishing — at least with people booking trips and dropping a line in the water.

And it was all good Monday as more than a dozen charter boats had trips.

Oklahoma anglers on the Huntress with Capt. Mike Graef pulled in three amberjack, a black sea bass and a few mingo.

The party boat Destin Princess with Capt. Reid Phillips at the helm came in from a six-hour trip with several stringers loaded with mingo, red snapper, white snapper and lane snapper. The Destin Princess is one of three party boats that is part of pilot program which are allotted so many red snapper tags for the reef fish.

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Capt. Mike Parker and the Rumbold’s of Delaware came in from a morning trip on the Silver King with a tale to tell. Bonnie Rumbold had hooked into about a 150-pound shark that took her for a ride.

“It took off. I thought it was going to pull me off the boat,” Bonnie said.

Capt. Parker said the shark took out about 80-yards of line. After a good fight, they got the shark close enough to the boat for a few photos, then cut it loose.

They also caught and released a few red snapper.

Anglers on the Blue Runner II with Capt. Tommy Carter came in with a good catch. They had a red grouper on the racks along with a few mingo and white snapper.

Houston, Texas anglers on the First Light with Capt. Steve Haeusler backed in with six big amberjack and several mingo and white snapper.

“It was nice and calm,” said Capt. Robert Hill of the Twilight as his deckhand hung up their catch.

The Texas anglers on the Twilight had seven-and-a-half amberjack, an almaco jack and some big mingo. The other half of the amberjack was shark bait.

Anglers from Franklin, Tenn., had  a big time on the Vengeance with Capt. Jason Hallmark. They pulled in seven amberjack, mingo, white snapper, red grouper and a scamp.

“It was slick calm,” Hallmark said, which made for good fishing conditions.

Texas anglers on the Fish N Teem with Capt. B.J. Teems, who was running it for his dad, Capt. Billy Teems, came in with a board full of amberjack, two red grouper, mingo, lane snapper and white snapper.

Capt. Chuck Turbanic on the Fifth Amendment backed with a pile of mingo and white snapper.

Fishing is heating up. Don’t miss out on the heat wave.

See you at the docks.