Beware the tax man when fishing in the Gulf. Tampa Bay anglers saw 3 tuna stolen.
While April 15 may have come and gone, anglers in the Gulf are still having constant encounters with the tax man.
This has become a more frequent event, and in recent years anglers have voiced more and more frustration of their hooked fish getting taxed.
The tax man, also known as aggressive sharks, goliath grouper and baracuda, often cause heartbreak and misery. Hooked fish like snapper, grouper, tuna and more can often fall prey to the food chain as one of these predators swoops in for an easy meal with struggling fish at the end of a line.
These species are most prevalent around fish structures like reefs and wrecks, which also are home to the species anglers want.
On Wednesday, I ventured into the Gulf of Mexico with Chris Petitt aboard his 23-foot Cobia. It was a decent weather day after a week of windy conditions and we had the plan for fun fish for amberjack on wrecks, then move around for grouper and snapper.
Petitt’s son, Caleb, and Ryan Oiles made quick work of bait at the Sunshine Skyway Bridge fishing pier early, and we pointed west with decent conditions.
The first stop, a wreck in about 100 feet of water, had a boat slow-trolling around the area. We anchored up and started chumming. Caleb dropped a vertical jig and hooked into a decent fish after only a few minutes.
His rod bent but the fish acted like dead weight on it’s ascent. When it got to the surface, we saw about a 40-pound cobia on the other end. After finally realizing it was hooked, the cobia grey-hounded along the surface and shook it’s head, throwing the vertical jig from its mouth.
We were 0 for 1 on quality fish. Slightly dejected, Caleb kept working the vertical jig and soon hooked a small amberjack and released it. Off the back of the boat, blackfin tuna were busting, raising our excitement levels.
Then Chris’s freelined bait started screaming. It was no doubt a tuna with a strong hard surface run and quick thumps of the head. After 10 minutes, we could see it below the boat with its back and silvery shine reflecting the sun.
But behind it was not one, but three large sharks.
Chris did what he could to pull the tuna away, but it was to no avail. When the first shark got a piece of the tuna, it seemed an entire herd of them showed up.
At one point, five were thrashing around at the tuna coming right up to the boat. When the tuna was disposed off, their next target was a small school of bait using the boat for cover.
The sharks attempted to either eat the bait against the engine or the prop itself of the 250 Yamaha as their aggressive actions made the boat move with contact against it!
Naively hoping it was a one-off event, we kept fishing. Soon Oiles was hooked into a second tuna. After 10 minutes, he had it below the boat and we could see the sharks in pursuit again. He did his best and maximized the pressure to get the fish up but ultimately a knot broke with the fish close.
Next was my turn, and soon my 65-pound braid was put to the test. I tried to quickly work the fish in, but once again it was sharked. We were certainly paying our taxes, and the pain of seeing three tuna lost stung.
We moved spots to another wreck and tangled with a few smaller amberjack, but nothing big. After one more wreck, the Mexican Pride was our final big structure stop, but here the goliath grouper proved an aggressive tax man.
We lost probably a dozen fish to them as they pulled us into the structure below.
Changing plans Petitt steered us to some hard bottom in 110 feet. After about two dozen red snapper came to the surface and released, we were able to land a variety of mangrove snapper, red grouper and lane snapper.
It could have been a great day with the potential of adding tuna and a cobia to the box, but ultimately that wasn’t in the cards.
The tax men of the Gulf of Mexico are relentless. Should something be done? It’s probably time to realize that sharks and goliath grouper are a big problem.
