Scott(702) sent this offshore fishing report from yesterday.

We (Justin, John, Robbie and I) left Conn Brown around 10:45 this morning. It was a chilly ride to the jetties. We were aiming for the Gulf and our prayers were answered. The waves were around 3’ and 6+ seconds apart. It made for a very peaceful ride to the first line of rigs around 6 miles out. Water depth was approximately 50’. The water was murky green brown but we decided to drift one of the rigs several times. We had a couple of good bites and then Justin had a very strong pull. 10 minutes later he landed a 40” bull redfish. He chose to keep it, tag it and put it in the box. It just about filled the box all by itself. After several more empty drifts we decided to move onto the anchored ships around 9 miles out. We drifted alongside a tanker from Monrovia several times. They were a friendly crew. They kept wishing us a Happy New Year. We think that is all they knew in English. We were drifting for Kingfish and anything else that would bite but were unsuccessful. We then moved further out to a rig that was approximately 14 miles out from the shore. Water depth was 75’. The water was a more clear green. Very pretty but still no fish as we drifted past it several times. We then headed for another rig on the distant horizon . . . even further from shore. After a short run we found ourselves 20 miles offshore in 96’ of beautiful blue green water. We tied onto and unmanned rig and dropped our lines to the bottom. The catching action was instantaneous. We started pulling red snapper from the bottom as fast as we could get the line down. Some were as much as 24” in length. The bad news is they are out of season in Federal waters. We had to throw every one of them back and yes we popped their air bladder so they will live to be caught by us on another day. We caught them on cigar minnows, ballyhoo, menhaden, live perch and diamond jigs. The phrase “fish in a barrel” comes to mind. We tried fishing at the surface and half-way down in an attempt to catch something other than snapper but we were unsuccessful in that attempt. We even chummed with chopped up menhaden to try to bring in sharks but had no luck. Never thought I would be disappointed to catch large fat Red Snapper. After an hour we tried trolling several diving lures but had no luck. We then headed for several rigs that were within the 9 mile line in an attempt to catch some legal snapper. The problem was when you get that close to shore the water turns back to murky brown and the snapper will not stay in that color water. We then moved into the jetties for a final attempt at finding some keeper fish. We were there during a very weak tide and had no bites. The day was a huge success in that we tested the Mako on a run into the Gulf, we found a gold mine of snapper and Robbie can go back to California with a picture of him catching a fish in the Gulf.