How a Bradenton fishing captain takes anglers out for ‘a story that lasts forever’
Captain Jason Stock knows memories made fishing aren’t always because fish are brought home for the dinner table.
“It’s all about entertainment. If people get fish to eat, they may get one or two meals, but if they catch the biggest fish of their life, that’s a story that lasts forever,” said the Bradenton-based offshore captain Stock.
“I always ask people what they want to do when they get on the boat. Some say they want to target a specific fish, others say they just want to catch something big and then some want something to eat. But we can’t always target easy meat fish because they’re out of season.”
Stock, like many other offshore captains, has felt the effects of stricter closed seasons this year. Over the past month, he’s been targeting pelagic species for meat and has noticed a good amount of cobia around this year.
“Around the new and full moon, they seem to be tighter to the bigger structures and reefs like other pelagics do. Last Saturday we caught nine and had a lot of break-offs too. On nicer days we can get out to some 20- to 30-mile stuff and we got a 45- and 50-pounder on the same day, then got a nice tripletail on the way in.”
When dinner is acquired, Stock usually heads to put his clients on fish they’ll remember forever. He’s gotten good at catching goliath grouper on wrecks and reefs. During the past week, he hosted a scientific research crew to research ways to revive goliath grouper better when they suffer from barotrauma, an injury caused by a sudden change in air pressure.
“We got five or six goliaths, one on the hand line and then they got picky so we had to use an 80-wide. We went through some hooks from fish who got in the wrecks. I liked fishing with them because they had a lot of knowledge about the species,” Stock explained. The fish were descended with various tools for research.
“The biggest one we caught was probably 300 pounds. I learned that fish is only 12 to 20 years old. This year I’ve been seeing a lot of ‘new recruitment’ — fish that are 30 to 70 pounds. There’s more than I’ve ever seen in my lifetime. They, like sandbar sharks, have been protected for 40 years and now they’re thriving. I learned they used to travel a lot more from spot to spot like down to Naples and now they don’t travel as much as they used to.”
The largest grouper in the western hemisphere, the world record goliath grouper was caught in 1961 and weighed 680 pounds. Anglers believe they can reach weights of 1000 pounds. It is their aggressive nature and size that makes them one of the best storytelling fish on Stock’s trips.
“They’re the king of the rock. Bad fish. For a customer that’s something they will never forget.”
