Revisiting a Gulf of Mexico fishing trip filled with ‘awesomeness’

Once a year spear-fisherman Rob Murphy plans out a bucket list trip around the state of Florida chasing the best fish the southeast has to offer. His trip for 2019 happened nearly seven months ago, but the reemergence of the photos have gone viral because of their sheer awesomeness.

“The trip was back in May, so I never expected to see the pictures again,” Murphy said about the photo’s return, which features their catch spread across the deck of Murphy’s Contender boat. “It was from a two- ay trip to the deep Gulf of Mexico out of Southwest Florida. We caught it right and it was pretty good.”

Pretty good is an understatement. By the end of their two days on the Gulf they had single trip limit of multiple species. The catch comprised of 15 black grouper and one red grouper, two African pompano, two permit, big mutton snapper, huge hogfish and a giant wahoo.

The trip started with beautiful weather, allowing Murphy to head west nearly 150 miles out to start. They dropped on a deep wreck in 240-feet of water, the first of many spots that would produce fish.

“There was an incredible mass of permit on the wrecks and there were African pompano up in the water column. It’s only a two fish limit per boat of each so that happens quickly,” Murphy explained. “We dove on a little bit of everything during the trip; wrecks, natural bottom, little potholes and other pieces of structure. Mostly we did 9 or 10 short bounce dives, shot what’s there and got out on each spot. I don’t like to clean anyplace out and always leave more for next time.”

On one of the natural bottom dives Murphy found himself face to face with a large black grouper. During the first descent down he wasn’t able to secure the fish and returned to the surface before heading back down not once, but twice, to capture his prized fish.

“That one was in the 80-pound class, it was the biggest of the trip and took a bit more effort than usual!”

By the end of the trip Murphy said the crew used 30 scuba tanks while covering over 300 miles of water and over 300 gallons of gas.

“We ate good for a while. I love hogfish and black grouper but the wahoo was something special. That one was lucky, on one of the wrecks it swam right up to Lonnie and he stoned it.

“This isn’t something we do all the time so like to fill the freezer when we do. But we stay within our limits and always leave more for next time.”