‘It’s unpredictable.’ Bradenton-area anglers caught in dangerous Gulf storm

Captain John Gunter is no stranger to venturing offshore.

He’s captained both inshore and offshore in the Gulf but still enjoys heading deep with friends to fill a cooler for his own keeping.

“There was no chance of rain when we left. I looked at three different sites, and they all said it was going to be nice. Light winds, no rain, perfect conditions,” said Gunter, who left Sunday, June 1, for an overnight trip with friends Ben Williams and Bobby Alleva for a birthday trip aboard Williams’ 32-foot World Cat.

“On the way out, it was nice, probably 1- to 2-foot seas until 150-feet when it got really calm. We went to about 250 feet and the fishing was good. I got a mutton on the first drop on a jig. Then Bobby got a 32-inch mutton on a pinfish. We got a short carbo (grouper). We bounced around and caught a bunch of other fish.”

By the first evening, they had a box of red snapper with some scamp grouper and had let go of many big gag grouper.

At night, the group came back into 200 feet of water where they set up anchor on a ledge. They caught big mangrove snapper in the darkness, which Gunter was catching by tossing a 6-ounce weight forward and letting it drift back with the strong current.

About 3 a.m. Monday, Gunter went to get a bit of sleep.

“At 5:30 a.m., I’m in a bean bag and was woken up when the bow slammed down. There was whitewater all around us. We saw a nasty storm to the south and looked at the satellite radar, it was about 60 miles away. We were going to try to fish for a bit before heading in, so we stuck it out.”

With storms blowing up to their south and east, the group went to a red grouper spot. Gunter said the fishing was as good as it gets.

“It was stupid with the dropping barometer. Giant red grouper, giant gags, giant scamps. The biggest gag was 39 pounds on the scale. The red grouper were 33 to 34 inches,” Gunter explained. “By 11 a.m., we had a limit of most fish and thought it was about time to head in.”

The storms had not ceased. Instead of heading straight into one that was to their east, they ventured slightly north. But there was no escape. The forecast of less than 1-foot seas turned into every fisherman’s worst nightmare.

“We got to about 150 feet of water and s**t hit the fan. It went from 2 feet to 5 feet and occasional 7-footer, coming from every direction. We were only able to do 11 to 15 knots and it took six hours to get home,” Gunter recalled. “It felt great to see land.”

Gunter, who normally runs a 26-foot Andros for his charters, was thankful he wasn’t caught out in a smaller boat.

“A couple of people out there in bayboats said they just about died that day. We all trusted the forecast and it was dead wrong. That’s the thing about summertime — it’s unpredictable. With the weather, they’ll say it’ll do something, but it won’t, or they’ll say it won’t do something and it will.”

The Monday through Wednesday storms timed up with the early red snapper season, meaning many anglers were offshore before the bad weather.

It’s a reminder that the Gulf of America can turn ugly in an instant, no matter the size boat or the experience of the captain, Mother Nature can be unpredictable.