The FISHINGUNITED.COM deep water charter left at noon on Friday, January 9 with 20 anxious fishermen. The Viking Star had a 21 hour steam before starting to fish between 95 and 110 fathom.

The Gulfstar did it again, another weekend of FANTASTIC grouper fishing! Capt Jerry reported that he has not seen fishing this hot in a long time. Most anglers caught their limit and released many others. Lots of big AJs, vermillion snappers and great looking gags!

We are still taking reservations for the 44 Hour trip on Jan 16 and 23. There are still a few spots left on the 30 Hour Grouper Grab and the 20 Hour Crabtree Squeaker at the end of the month. The Florida office is open 7 days a week, get your reservations in ASAP! 727 938 5300

This week the Gulfstar will fish Half Day trips on Monday, January 5 and Wednesday, January 7. Get your reservations in ASAP. 727-938-5300

Happy New Year from the crew in Tarpon Springs! We have only 3 spaces left on this weekends 44 Hour Middle Grounds Trip. The last few grouper trips have been RED HOT, so we are going for it again this week. The Gulfstar will offer some Half Day trips next week on Jan 5 and 7. Get your reservations in ASAP.

Capt. Rich reports that yesterdays 16 Hour Extended Day trip provided LOTS and LOTS of rod bending grouper action! Some passengers caught their daily limit; Mike Bavis of St. Pete, FL was one of them. Scott Myers took the grouper and snapper pool. The Gulfstar ended up with only a few snapper, but nearly 50 keeper grouper. All in all, it was an awesome trip! The crew reported that along with great weather, a fun crowd made for a great trip.

Tomorrow, Monday, Dec 29, the Gulfstar will leave the dock at 9am sharp for a full 8 Hour Day trip. Walk ons are WELCOME! Rod and reel, frozen and live bait are free. But bring lunch and drinks. See you at Viking Landing!

The Gulfstar fished a Half Day trip yesterday. Take a look at the photos in the gallery, there were TONS of grunts and sea bass. We had several families on board celebrating their Christmas holiday. Daniel McCabe came all the way from England and proved to fit right in with the Vikings. We'll do it again tomorrow, Sunday, December 28!

Last Friday's 44 Hour Middle Grounds Trip was PHENOMINAL! See the pictures in the photo gallery...TONS OF GROUPER!

Exciting trip added to schedule!!!!!!!!

A 16 Hour Grouper North Grounds Special has been added. After the success of the last 16 hr trip a lot of passengers have been asking for another one so we added one. The Gulfstar will depart Saturday 12/06/2008 at 8am and return at midnight this will give us time for a sundown bite and some mangrove snapper fishing. Lunch and dinner, cut AND live bait and rod & reel are all included. RESERVE NOW!!

Sunday November 30th
Capt. Rich reported that Saturdays Half Day trip was breezy! We were not expecting the wind to pick up until Sunday, but it arrived a little earlier. The wind did not stop the 11 anglers from enjoying their day and putting a nice catch together. Plenty of grunts, sea bass and short groupers. Check out the photo gallery to see a few pics.

November 2
Saturdays 16 hour Grouper trip ended up as a great day. The Gulfstar departed a few minutes early in some breezy and bumpy conditions. The first stop of the day was not very productive and did not see much action at all. Captain Rich pushed through the weather finally getting to the fishing zone. Once noon came around the weather took a turn with no wind and plenty of sunshine. The zone turned out lots of action with plenty of shorts and keepers. They had Flounder up to 5lbs, Kingfish up to 35lbs and a nice mix of Red and Gag Grouper. As evening approached fishing slowed dramatically. They had a few keeper reds, 5 more Gag Grouper and only 2 more Mangrove Snapper. All in all a great trip.

9/23/08
Last night, the group from Premier Beverage, Tampa, FL, returned from their 24 Hour private charter on the Gulfstar. Capt. Rich reported excellent fishing! The guys caught lots of big mangos and saw lots of grouper action. They had plenty of kingfish and amberjacks, also caught and released a lot of American red snapper.Capt. Rich sends a big thanks to Chris Nicolas, of Premier Beverage, for putting a great group of guys onboard. Hopefully we’ll see you all in Tarpon Springs again soon!

Tuesday, September 09, 2008
Capt. Rich has finally returned from Montauk, NY. After tuna fishing for a few weeks, he was anxious to get some grouper fishing done!
Since Hurricane Ike has been threatening the Gulf of Mexico, Capt. Rich decided to move the 44 Hour trip from Monday (9/8/8) to Sunday night. He explained to the group that they probably wouldn’t be headed all the way to the Middle Grounds in order to get in as much fishing time as possible. Everyone was fine with suggestion, most anglers wound up catching near their 2 day limit of snappers, average weight of 5 lbs but plenty topping out at 8 to 9 pounds. They were whacking the grouper, some reaching their limit of reds and gag. Jason Bradford landed a beautiful 25 lb gag grouper.Brandon Curcio flew in from Wyoming for the trip in order to fish with his brother Jason. Prior to fishing on the Viking Gulfstar, the largest fish Brandon had ever caught was a 4 lb trout. He caught lots of snapper and grouper much larger than anything else he’d landed before. Well done guys!

July 14, 2008
12 Hour Night Snapper
The weather was bumpy and uncomfortable but the Red Snapper were biting we caught our limit on 1 drop and picked a few other fish like king mackerel, gag grouper, lane and mangrove snapper and a few porgies. The sharks were there also around eating some tasty treats and they were cranked from the depths. We did get home late due to the sloppy conditions but with a box full of red snapper nobody seemed to mind.

July, 11 2008
44 hr Florida Middle Grounds
The 44 hr trip this weekend was very exciting. One of our regular passengers was celebrating his birthday with us. This would mean we could call Dean Old, crusty and things like for the whole weekend without him getting very far away from the heckling. The first drop of the trip gave us lots of mangrove snapper and some American red snapper also in the mix was some red grouper and 1 gag grouper and a bunch of king mackerel. During the day on Saturday we moved to deeper water and whacked the Giant amberjack and some more red snapper. The afternoon was a slow grind picking away at some porgies and more red grouper. Sat night the bite started right away allowing us to top off our snapper limit and making for a late birthday dinner of Rib eye steaks, Lobster tails and Stone crab claws and of course a cake what a feast. We could not top off the cake with the correct amount of candles because of the fire hazard of all those open flames The Grouper Bite on Sunday morning was very slow with only a few shorts coming over the rail. What a great weekend.

July 10, 2008
Jumbo Red Snapper Special
The jumbo Red snapper special on July 10 was a success with the passengers catching there limit of Red snappers on the first drop along with some large Gag Grouper and amberjack. The rest of the day we picked away at some more assorted snappers like Yellowtail, Mutton, Vermillion and Mangrove. On the grouper scene we managed a few nice Red Grouper and a handful of Scamp Grouper.

Last weekend Capt Rich arrived home with nothing but good reports. It started off with a nice Mangro Snapper bite early Saturday morning. The first stop after sun-up produced a 29.5 lb grouper caught by Jimmy Gallagher and a good mess of large American Red Snapper. The rest of the day we caught a mixture of large red snapper and big Red and Gag Grouper. The Saturday evening sundown bite was lock and load with red snapper, Mangro snapper, amberjack, and grouper. After sundown we topped off our Mango snapper limit by midnight, we made a long move looking for some am gag grouper action. The move produced about a dozen and a half good sized gag groupers.
Excellent fishing and good weather, the time is now, fish are biting…Book Now!

July has a good variety of trips happening, don’t wait to make reservations! Give us a call at 888-FL TRIPS
Capt. Rich has added two trips…they are highlighted below. July has a good variety of trips happening! DO NOT wait to make reservations! Give us a call at 888-FL TRIPS or 727-938-5300

The much anticipated 4 day pelagic / deepwater trip departed about 30 minutes early, as everybody stowed there gear and started familiarizing themselves with there new home for the next 4 days. As we were motoring down the channel I checked and rechecked all the gauges, navigation lights, instruments and the satellite shots of the offshore eddys and currents feeling pretty good about an area I plotted out the course, 155 nm WSW. I was real happy with that distance because on the last 4-day trip we had to steam over 200 miles to find the water break that I felt good about. With Fuel at $4.75 per gallon this year distance is a big factor whether we like it or not it. Once we cleared the last channel marker and were in open water I turned the Gulf star on course on started thinking about some stops along the way to break up the ride. The words RED SNAPPER jumped into my mind, yeah let us chase some red snapper for an hour or so. I asked second Captain George to go talk to the Passengers to see if they wanted to do the same the vote came back instantly YEAH! After altering course a bit, I looked back to the cockpit and saw the anglers anxiously rigging for Red Snapper. Five hours later I eased the throttles back and started searching the area for those tasty Red Snapper. As we circled around one more time a called over the PA system get ready guys where going to make a drift here. It was not long before the words FISH ON were being muttered. The fishing was not fast and furious but steady we only had to make two drifts to catch a bunch of Red Snapper, two Mangrove and two Lane Snapper. Knowing that we still have a lot of miles to cover before the morning sun would rise we agreed it was time to move on and get offshore.

Getting close, I observed the sea surface temp gauge fluttering back and fourth indicating the breaks were getting closer. The Sun was just starting to rise over the horizon and it was lines out. The First fish was a real nice Wahoo about 50 lbs and not too long after was a couple Dorado (dolphin fish) or as PGF says mi-mi’s. Wow great start right? Well it went down hill in a hurry because we had only a couple of mystery bites for the rest of the day. The water just flattened out and the breaks were gone. After searching all day we gave up, switched gears and tried some deep dropping Grouper and Snapper that too was slow. We managed a few small to medium sized grouper but nothing we had anticipated. With the Sun getting low we started thinking SWORDFISH maybe we can change our luck with some awesome swords. We steamed Two hours after sun down while every body had dinner, Marking bait and a Thermo-cline on the bottom machine we throttled back, started chumming put the colored sword lights in the water and started fishing. Nothing, Nothing, Nothing all night long.

The morning came with bruised egos and a new hope of mayhem on deck as we started trolling again. The water moved and it moved fast, we were in search mode looking for the temp break. My gut feeling was telling me to go north but the satellite shot was telling me west. After about an hour of talking to myself, we were trolling northwest, scanning the horizon through binoculars searching for weeds, trash, and a convergence zone anything that might hold fish. After 60 miles finally some surface action a few weeds and small temp changes we get a bite a barracuda, we see a dorsal fin up ahead, a Sailfish then another, no bites…. We drilled the area for 2 hours, this is turning into a captains nightmare, Now fed up with my split personality’s compromise I turned Northeast and went with my original gut feeling asking myself what was I thinking when I decided to go north west, at this point I felt lost with no plan to find my way. I know, stop drinking so much coffee and get a nap and sleep on it. Captain George has the helm now he mutters something and starts searching through his gear digging around he pokes himself a few times, hooks, knives, bladder deflators. “I Got 'em” There his ultra bionic polyball seeing, trash spotting, weed whacking green Costa Del Mar prescription sunglasses. “There’s no Hidin' now fishes”. That’s not really what he said but I’m trying to keep it clean here, you know for the kids. After about two hrs the engines slow down and wake up to a large Mi-MI dancing on the surface. We both agree that we need to drill it out here. Its getting late in the afternoon and we have life. After trolling some more we whack a few more Mimi’s and see Tuna all over. Looking back at the spread the long shotgun rod with a 14-inch Marlin Lure gets throttled by a large Blue Marlin. Fish on everybody screams as the 50 wide two speed reel is almost on fire. The lines are cleared and the deck was quickly made ready for the battle and it was clear by now this monster had no intention of meeting us and getting up close and personal. The battle did not last long, the Marlin won the battle. The mainline had parted in the middle of the line. What an upset after two very slow days of trolling the release of that marlin would have bounced everybody back in the zone. We trolled around for sundown watching tunas jumping and frolicking but no bites.

After dark we set up for the Swordfish drifts, we deployed the chum, sword lights and baits. Now we wait, and eat dinner, rib-eye steaks, grilled veggies and homemade Cole slaw what a feast. The first bite came late around 1 am, It was a keeper sword not a giant but a keeper. About an hour later three bites came in an instant causing chaos on deck these fish charged the boat and the tangles we wicked. We cleared the tangle ASAP but the fish were angry and they would not wait for anything, two gone and 1 boated. We straighten everything out and get the baits back in the water and wait only for about 30 minuets for another bite. This fish came in real easy with little commotion and fell victim to the gaff quickly. The last bite of the night was around 4 am which was an Oil fish around 35 lbs.

After sunrise we started trolling, today the plan was to troll around this area and up to the northeast towards a wreck in 950 ft of water and do some deep dropping. I don’t recall if we caught anything trolling up to the wreck that morning but when I circled over the wreck the bottom machine almost exploded with red marks all over and around the wreck. We anxiously cleared all the trolling rods and deployed the deep drop electric rods and rigged them up with 3 lb sinkers and large circle hooks baited with whole squid and a half of mackerel. We motored back up to the spot and dropped down; it’s a long way down like almost 2 minuets, which seems like an hour when you are excited. The baits did not sit very long on the bottom before I watched the rods start to bend over and the started hearing the guys screaming “fish on”. The first fish up was a nice snowy Grouper about 28 lbs then another snowy about 20 lbs then on the third rod we watch the rod stop bouncing and come up with an empty hook. The fish became UN buttoned for some reason. We made a bunch more passes during the morning and had consistent fishing on almost every pass catching Snowy and/or yellow-edge grouper. There were also Barrel fish coming up; these fish fight all the way up shaking their head violently and bending the rod tip almost to the water. Then I hear “hey look at that weed line” I was so focused on what was 950 ft down that I was not looking 300 ft away on the horizon. I let the boat drift in to the weed line and soon we heard “mahi on” now this is where it get pretty awesome the mahi’s are almost jumping in the boat and I see the deep drop rods bent over with fish 2 Barrel fish 1 large snowy and a bunch of mahi come victim to the gaff all in a matter of seconds. We worked that weed line for a while catching a bunch more mahi and a couple of barracuda. The rest of the day was a fish here and there but nothing compared to the morning. It was a long day because everybody was looking forward to some more sword fishing that night.

The first Sword came up at 11:30 pm it was about 100lbs or so and the second bite was not long after in fact we had three bites quickly but we couldn’t put the hook into the fish. The last sword of the trip was around 3am this one was just keeper size. The next morning we started trolling towards home and boxed up some more mahi and 1 more Wahoo. At 3 pm I called out lines up guys and pointed the Gulfstar towards home.

44hr Deepwater Grouper

This past weekend aboard the Gulfstar we fished the deep dark depths of the Gulf of Mexico with great company, good weather and fantastic success. Early Saturday morning we stopped in 200ft and landed some very nice Mangrove snappers with tiny ones mixed in, go figure 12 inch mangroves in 200ft. We also released 5 Gag Grouper to about 15 lbs and a couple American red snapper.
Saturday Sun up with the Gulfstar hovering 490 plus ft over some very nice bottom with fish all over, we started our day of deep dropping. The fish cooperated well all day with Yellow edge, Scamp, hind, coneys, tilefish, porgies, Vermillion and gag grouper in the mix. All gag grouper and red snapper were released and all swam away thats right even the fish caught deep swam away with vigor.

Saturday night we stayed in the deep and tried some night deep dropping, the Grouper and Snapper did not play with us but the Sharks did, black tip, spinner, and hammerhead even a Black-fin Tuna.

2AM Sunday we steamed inshore and went wreck hopping on the way home we had plenty of action of red grouper and red snapper all were released.
Another Great Deep Drop trip completed and we cant wait for the next one. BOOK NOW!!!!!! 2008 SCHEDULES

CAPT RICH
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CHECK OUT THE NEW SCHEDULE !!!!!! BOOK YOUR TRIP NOW !!!!!!!!!!! 2008 SCHEDULES

Vikings of Tarpon Springs were nominated for the business of the year award by the Tarpon Springs Chamber of Commerce!

PLUS 16 Hour Extended Day trips EVERY Thursday in February & March!! COME JOIN US!**

Click below to view the 2008 Schedule!

2008 SCHEDULES

Be sure to check out the 2008 schedule at the link above ! Simply click on the type of trip that interests you and the available dates will appear to the right.

It's official! The American Red Snapper season will now open on June 1, 2008; therfore Capt. Rich has changed up the May & June schedule a little bit. Below is a list of trips he has added to the Gulfstar schedule. All 24 Hour trips will include bait, tackle and coffee. As usual, reservations are a MUST, so give us a call to get your name added to the list! 727-938-5300

This past weekend aboard the Gulfstar we fished the deep dark depths of the Gulf of Mexico with great company, good weather and fantastic success. Early Saturday morning we stopped in 200ft and landed some very nice Mangrove snappers with tiny ones mixed in, go figure 12 inch mangroves in 200ft. We also released 5 Gag Grouper to about 15 lbs and a couple American red snapper.

Saturday Sun up with the Gulfstar hovering 490 plus ft over some very nice bottom with fish all over, we started our day of deep dropping. The fish cooperated well all day with Yellow edge, Scamp, hind, coneys, tilefish, porgies, Vermillion and gag grouper in the mix. All gag grouper and red snapper were released and all swam away that’s right even the fish caught deep swam away with vigor.

Saturday night we stayed in the deep and tried some night deep dropping, the Grouper and Snapper did not play with us but the Sharks did, black tip, spinner, and hammerhead even a Black-fin Tuna. 2AM Sunday we steamed inshore and went wreck hopping on the way home we had plenty of action of red grouper and red snapper all were released. Another Great Deep Drop trip completed and we cant wait for the next one. BOOK NOW!!!!!! CAPT RICH

The Gulf Grouper Closure has everybody in a funk, Dr. Roy Crabtree and his Goons are putting the squeeze on the recreations fisherman and women from Feb 15 to Mar 15 2008 with even more closures proposed on the way. The Viking Fleet will not stand down! We went Grouper catching this past weekend and came home with plenty of Grouper in the box. The closure is on 3 of the many different Groupers available to catch. All we had to do was change our tactics and our fishing locations.

Friday night, Feb 15, the Gulfstar departed Viking Landing at 8pm and steamed all night out to the abyss of the Gulf. The men and women aboard started grouper catching by 730 AM on Sat. The fishing was very steady with various Groupers like Yellow Edge, Snowy, Speckled Hind, Scamp and Yellow Mouth, ALL GROUPER THAT CAN BE CAUGHT, along with really big Vermillion snapper and Yellow Eye snapper. The Red Porgies were ravenous with many of them topping the 5 lb mark. Also a lot of nice gray tilefish in the mix. We have more specialty trips like this one scheduled, call the office or check the website for details. Www.vikingfleet.com.

The weather was awesome on Sat and the fishing really could not have gotten any better. The fish were biting almost immediately for most of the day. Everybody onboard caught a fish that was a 1st for them, making for a lot of very excited anglers. Jan from Michigan booked the trip last minute, just a few weeks after learning she has stage 1 lung cancer. Jan is an avid fisherwoman who has traveled and fished many of the popular fishing locales in America. Before she started the very grueling fight against her illness, Janice wanted to catch a Gulf Grouper and enjoy it with her family that lives in Florida. She was very upset when she learned that Grouper was closed. After we told her about the other Grouper species she could catch, it seemed that she felt much better. I did not realize how she must have felt about this BS grouper closure and her situation, but by Sat afternoon after getting to know her much better, I became enraged thinking about how careless the NMFS and Dr. Roy Crabtree are regarding the people who participate in the grouper fishery; whether it be for spiritual reasons or any other reason that helps them get through life. Jan had to go on a trip that took her very far offshore to accomplish her goal, when it could have been done on an 8 hour day trip.

Viking Fleet wishes Jan the best of luck and a speedy recovery! Advice for all of us, DO NOT let Dr. Crabtree and his Goon Squad win with their voodoo math calculations. Stand up and be counted!

The Viking Superstar was out on a 16 hr trip yesterday. The weather was COLD, and a bit ugly in the morning, but it got nicer and nicer throughout the day. The first stop produced a bunch of gag grouper, as well as a few Amberjacks. After picking away for a while, we slid over to another spot close to that one, and picked a few more gags. Matter of fact, Ricky Gordon already had his grouper limit, with gags to 12 lbs, and a keeper AJ. We tried another spot after that, and caught more gags, and some scamps. After that, the bite died off, and we bounced a round and didn’t catch much. We tried a wreck, but only short Ajs came up. Then we tried another and caught more gags. After that, our last stop produced a few more gags and some mangos. Laslo Kovacs caught 3 gags to 18 lbs, but was not in the pool. Norm Anderson of Inverness, FL took the pool money with a 16 lb gag!

Monday, Feb. 11, 2008

The Viking Superstar went out on a half day trip today. The weather was nice, and fishing was good. We had a lot of nice sized grunts, as well as short groupers. Craig Neal of Tarpon Springs, FL took a day off of work from Captain Jacks restaurant and won the pool with a nice grunt! Congrats.

Sunday, Feb. 10, 2008

The Viking Superstar just got back from a 44 hr trip. Fishing was tough, according to Capt. Carl. We started off snapper fishing at 2:30am and had a very strong current, making feeling the bites difficult. We caught some mangos, scamps, Red Groupers, and kingfish and we bounced around from spot to spot producing just a few here and a few there. When the sun came up, we tried a spot and caught some gag grouper and a couple Amberjacks. After that, things remained slow during the day. We made a lot of moves, and caught few more gag, red, and scamp groupers, as well as porgies. The grounds were tough, so we tried some deeper water spots, from 125 to 165ft. And caught just a few more gags, red groupers, porgies, and American Red Snappers (all released unharmed). We tried a wreck at sundown, and had many break-offs, due to light tackle and Goliath Groupers. One was landed, and estimated to be @ 130lbs. After the sun went down, we did catch some mangos, and lane snappers at the wreck. After that, we went back to the grounds, and each spot we tried we caught some mangos and Red groupers, but would only pick for a little while, then move on and find the same results. Then a cold front came through and the weather took a turn for the worse, making things even more difficult. It was a tough trip, but everyone still went home with some fish. James Best from Grand Rapids, MI took the Grouper pool with a 21 lb gag. Chris Yeates of Brooksfield, CT took the snapper pool with a 11 pound mango. AND Jason Fortin ofWest Palm Beach, FL took the AJ pool with a 24 pounder.

Capt. Carl took the Gulfstar out yesterday on a 16 hour trip and came back with a load! The weather was great, and our first stop was a good one! The Ajs bit their heads off, with many being keeper sized. As soon as they slowed down, the gags lit up, and we put many nice fish in the box. The we re-anchored on the other side of the piece and caught more jacks. Afdter that, we went to another spot, and the wind died off, so we motor fished it and put more nice gags in the boat! Our next drop was a little deeper, and did not produce much, so we moved on to a wreck. Right away, the Ajs bit again, then the gags followed, and we put a bunch more nice ones in the boat for sundown. Along with that, we had some keeper Red Groupers, scamps, and big American Red snappers, which were released unharmed. Next, was another wreck where we again motor fished it, and put some more gags in the boat. Our last drop produced a couple mangos to round out the catch! Kevin Hammer took the pool with a nice 16 lb gag!

The Gulfstar had yet another fantastic half day trip! We filled up stringers of grunts and seabass, and also caught many undersized groupers close to being keepers! The kids also outfished all the adults!!!! Great weather, and a great day.

The Viking Superstar was out today for an 8 hr trip. The weather was as nice as it gets! Our first stop in 60 foot of water had a lot of grunts, as well as short groupers. Our second stop had just a few more grunts, so we went further to 75 ft. and were welcomed by big grunts, triggerfish, a couple keeper Gag groupers, and some keeper Red Groupers, in between all the shorts! It was a beautiful day, and everyone caught something! Mike Williamson took the pool with a nice one!

The Viking Superstar returned from a 44 hr trip today with TONS of Grouper hanging! We started off at 3:00am Saturday and we picked some mangos. Then, at another stop at 5:00am, the gag grouper turned on!! We put many quality fish in the boat! After the sun came up and that bite died, we tried working the area for a while, but everything shut down. We then moved to another location and had a great Red Grouper spot, with keepers coming up all over to 24 lbs!! We worked this area and caught a few more, then headed out deeper. We stopped at one wreck in 160 ft and caught some gags, red groupers, scamps, porgies, and some American Reds (which were released unharmed). Next was another wreck in 135 ft, and the gags chewed!!! We put a LOT of 15-28 lb gags in the boat here! Even after the sun went down, we caught a few more gags, some lane snappers, vermillion snappers, mangos, and scamps! After that, it was back to the Grounds, were we picked away all night at Mangos, some gags, Red Groupers, Scamps, Porgies, and everything else! The next morning, we went to a large hump, and caught MORE nice gags to 29 lbs, and a couple Ajs. Last stop of the day, we caught MORE Gag Grouper, Red groupers, and snappers! It was a great trip and everyone had a blast! Scott Meyers of Sarasota, FL took the Grouper pool with a 29 lb gag, AND the AJ pool with a 26 lb AJ. John Tzainnes of Manhatan, NYtook the snapper pool with a hefty 9.8 lb mango! On another note, Richie Kessinger caught a 12 lb mango, but wasn’t in the pool!!

The Gulfstar was out on a half day trip today and what a great time it was! Beautiful weather, good fishing, and good people. Our first stop produced a ton of small gag grouper, as well as grunts and seabass. The next drop produced another ton of grunts and seabass, as well as a lot of small grouper. One GAG, however, made the grade at 23 inches! We also had triggerfish, and other assorted species.

The Superstar went out on an 8hr trip today. We had great weather, and good fishing! We caught tons of White Grunts, as well as a lot of groupers, with some keepers in the mix. Anthony Palisi from Long Island, NY took the pool with a nice 14 lb gag! His wife Linda, not to be outdone, also had a nice keeper in the boat, and lost a good one at the surface! It was a great trip and a lot of fun!!

The weather forecast was so so this weekend but everybody was excited to get out there and fish since our last trip to the grounds was red hot. The ride out was a bit uncomfortable and took an extra hour or so. The first drop was good with the Mangrove snapper biting very readily and the weather was not too bad the wind was ESE 15 -20 kts.

After sunrise we started bouncing grouper spots, picking away at the grouper on most of the spots. The weather was not as nice to us as the fish. The rain and wind had been on and off all day but, the fisherman were still fishing with incredible enthusiasm. The sundown bite was very good with the Gag Grouper and red porgy stealing the show. The Mangrove snappers did not show up until later that night inhaling dead Sardines and Threadfin Herring as fast as you can get close to the bottom. The wind continued to blow from the SE until about 1 30 am Sunday it then switched from the NE with it the air temp took a nose dive and most of our hardy fisherman hit the racks. At 3AM we made a 50 mile move through some very sloppy seas that felt like it took forever. Sunrise Sunday brisk NE wind and the rain gone our first drop was awesome Gag Grouper, Amberjack, Gag Grouper, Amberjack, Gag Grouper, Amberjack, all of the fishing rods were bowed over for about 2 hrs until things slowed down. Most of the fish were well over keeper size with some smaller ones mixed in. The next three drops had much smaller fish on them with a few legal size grouper mixed in.

The Ride in was slow and sloppy with lots of sunshine and happy fisherman. All in All the fishing was awesome and the weather sloppy. Good fishing, great people and fantastic memories.

The Superstar went out on a half day trip today from 11am to 4pm. The weather was great, and the fishing was good too! People had a lot of fun pulling in white grunts, seabass, and undersized grouper. A couple grouper were real close to being legal! Stringers were full, and all anglers went home with fish to eat. Norb Stachowski from Hartland, WI took the pool money with a sweet black seabass!!

The Viking Superstar was out on an 8 hr trip today. The weather, wind, and seas got nicer and nicer as the day went on, and the fishing got better and better as well. We started in 35 ft of water and caught some seabass, grunts, and small groupers. After another stop in 35 ft with the same results, we moved off to 45 ft. and fishing improved. We caught more seabass and grunts. The last stop of the day turned out to be the best as the groupers really started biting! We had some nice keeper gags, as well as everything else. Ron Rodriguez of Spring Hill, FL took home 2 keeper gags, as well as the jackpot money with a 9 pounder.

The Viking Superstar returned from its 44 hr trip last night with tons of fish!! Capt. Carl reports: "We started fishing at 3:00am Saturday morning and were welcomed by biting mangos! We were also catching red groupers and gags during the dark hours, with each spot producing a couple. As the sun came up, the mangos stopped biting, but the gags turned on!! Each spot held more gags anywhere from 8 pounds to 25 lbs. Jigging was very effective, as Phil Eastman from Eastmans Fishing Fleet in New Hampshire landed 4 on jigs, as well as 2 on baits. Tony Fish also landed 4 on jigs! They were chewing very good, and eating everything, all up until around 2:00 in the afternoon. Also in the mix were big porgies, a couple mangos, red groupers, and scamps. When things slowed up, we went to a wreck which produced more gags, all between 18 and 28 lbs! Then, it was back to the Middle Grounds where the mangos started turning on again! All night we picked away and many anglers filled their snapper limits! We also saw more gags and red groupers! Sunday morning, we set up on a large ledge, but it did not do much but 1 AJ and 1 gag. We did, however, get to witness a great casting contest between Mark and John from Massachusetts, where John picked up negative yardage, so Mark took the title easily! After that, our last stop was another wreck, and the Ajs finally started biting! Jigging again was effective, as well as live bait. We put many in the boat up to 32 pounds! There was also one more gag to boot! With great weather and constant action, the trip was a total success! We ended up with over 50 gags, about the same of Red Grouper, plenty of mangos and porgies, some triggers, scamps, and a load of Ajs! We beat the front coming home, and fileted fish for 4 hours!! Larry Clark of Jacksonville, FL took the snapper pool with a 8 lb mango. Tony Deluca, also of Jacksonville, took the Grouper pool with a 28 lb gag! Also, Phil Eastman of Seabrook, NH took the AJ pool with a 33 lb AJ! Thanks to everyone for all the laughs and a great trip!"

Todays 8 hr trip held beautiful weather! People had a great day in the sun catching groupers, lots of grunts, and seabass! We had a lot of small gags, with many just under the 22 inch minimum and some making the grade. The grunts and seabass also kept the rods bending and everyone had a blast! A special mention goes out to the Oak Run Fishing Club of Ocala, FL who had a great time. Luke Mullen, a member of the club, from Ocala, FL took the pool with a 8 lb gag! Nice job!!

The Viking Superstar just returned from the 16 hr Night Special. Fishing was picky, according to Capt. Carl. The first drop was loaded with pink porgies and a few mangos. The second drop produced a lot of Ajs non-stop… with just a few keepers, and barjacks. We also had a couple gags here, with Capt. George landing a beauty 27 pounder. We also had scamps and yellowtails here too.After that drop, things slowed down drastically, and we picked American Reds, which were released, a few more mangos, lane snappers, bee-liners, and more porgies. Basically, all we were missing were the mangos, as they did not bite too well, but most customers went home with a nice mess of filets. Eric Wright of Camanche, Iowa took the grouper pool with a 14 lb gag, and Carl Nelson of Tampa took the snapper pool with a 4 lb lane. Congrats!!

Captain Carl reports that the 44 hr trip on the Viking Superstar went well! The snapper fishing the first night was picky. We caught a few here and a few there. The morning bite proved to be successful. On one drop, we caught a ton of big Red Groupers, as well as a couple gags. We bounced around to a few more spots in 110 ft and caught a few more gags and red groupers, as well as some scamps and mangos. Then, we tried out a wreck and caught some nice Ajs and barjacks. Next stop was a big ledge where we scored some bigger Ajs, big gags, Red groupers, mangos, and porgies. After that, things slowed down a bit but we still managed some more gags, reds, and scamps. As night fell, the mango bite really started to turn on. Thing were difficult, however, because the porpoises were hungry too! They stole many, many fish throughout the night, but some anglers still limited out. The next morning we went to another wreck but it was slow. A few barjacks and break offs were all. Scott Meyers was the lucky winner of the grouper pool with a 18 lb gag (he had 8 for the trip, along with 2 red groupers for his limit, as well as his snapper limit). Marty Grasso took the AJ pool with a 28 pounder (he also had his limit of snapper!)! Bob Brown took the snapper pool with a sweet 9 lb mango! Also, a notable mention goes out to Lester Van Der Hoff drove all the way from New Jersey and caught 12 mangos, 7 groupers, and a lot of porgies! We certainly made a lot of moves and had to work for the fish, but we put a good catch together despite strong currents. Thanks everyone, and have a Happy New Year!!

Capt Rich reports that fishing has been outstanding on the Gulfstar! Friday nights 12 Hour Night Snapper trip had a pretty impressive variety of fish when they returned home this morning. Lots of yellow tail, lane, mangrove and vermillion snappers. Also a good amount of red and gag groupers, lots of jacks too. Capt Rich said that at least 40 American red groupers were caught and released. Austin McMullen, of Canada, took the pool with a nice red grouper.

Before heading out on the 12 Hour trip on Friday night, the Gulfstar had a great group of people out Half Day fishing. Everyone had a fantastic time catching sea bass, white grunts plus they saw lots of grouper action! The Gulfstar will have another Half Day trip tomorrow, departing at 11 AM. See you at the dock!

The Viking Superstar had an 8 hour trip today and came home with smiling faces and stringers of fish! The weather was flat calm and beautiful and the fish were biting. On each stop we made, we caught keeper gags, short red, gag, and scamp groupers, black seabass, grunts, and other species. It was a wonderful day! Robert Wade Hooper of Holiday, FL won the pool with a nice 12 lb gag!

The Viking Superstar was out this past weekend on another Florida Middle Grounds trip, and came back with a successful catch! Capt. Carl reports: "we started out the first night picking away at the mangos and red groupers. When the sun came up, we went inshore to 110ft. and caught gags to 24 lbs, red groupers, and some scamp. We worked this area for a while finding similar results. Then, we went to a 50 ft ledge where we hooked into some nice AJs to 55 lbs, and more gags. After that, the fishing became a little tougher, but we still managed more scamps, red groupers, and lots of porgies! We also checked out a wreck in 135 ft. and caught a few more AJs and broke off a lot of big gags. Here too, we found some nice sized lane snappers and scamps. Before night fell, we worked one more break and found a few more gags, red groupers, scamps, triggerfish, and mangos. The second night proved to be successful, with plenty of mangos, vermillion snappers, lanes, scamps, red groupers, and a few more gags... along with some big ARS that had to be released. Sunday morning, we looked at another wreck and started catching AJs pretty good, but then Capt. George AND Capt. Jerry both hooked into a pair of Goliaths which shut the AJ bite off. Both fish were landed and released, both @ 180lbs. Capt. George came out of retirement for this trip and he, along with Capt. Jerry, caught 18 different species of fish! They both caught 8 species of Grouper (Goliath, Gag, Red, Scamp, Graysby, Strawberry, Creole, and Soapfish), 4 species of snapper (mango, American Red, Vermillion, and Lane) 2 species of Jack (Amberjack and Barjack) 2 species of porgy (Margate and Pink), Grunts, and Triggerfish! I think, however, Capt. George will need a few more months to recover from it all!!!! Bob Brown also had a beauty AJ at 55 lbs and just edged out Capt. Georges big one! The largest snapper was a beauty 9 lb mango that was gaffed! The largest grouper was a sweet 24 lb gag!

The Superstar returned yesterday from another amazing trip! Capt. Carl reports "Our first drop was a weird one, with the current screaming to the south so we made a move and found some calmer waters. The mangos were biting OK, along with the Red Groupers and scamps. When the sun came up, we worked a break, and found more Red Groupers, and one nice gag (good job Tony). We worked our way up to a 50ft ledge and caught a few more scamps, red groupers, and snappers. We saw Amberjacks swimming, but we couldn't get them to bite. Then, we moved off to a wreck where we boated some more rusty belly groupers, along with a few ajs. Ben Gilliam Jr. was also able to bring up a 350 lb Goliath grouper! It was great watching him fight this impressive fish and wrestle him up from 130 ft of water. Once the fish was up, we snapped a few pictures, deflated his bladder, and sent him back down. After that, we went back to the grounds where we found more gags, red groupers, scamps, and snappers. As night fell, the mangos were biting. Many anglers caught their limits, even though the terrorists with fins (dolphins) were very persistent. The vermillion snappers were also biting, along with some big kingfish. When morning came on Sunday, we tried one spot we never fished before, and immediately a nice gag came up along with more red groupers and many break-offs. To round out an already stellar trip, we stopped at a wreck on the way home and it was an Amberjack SLAM! The mates were running around with gaffs not able to put them down. After boating many many nice Ajs, we decided to head for home. Stain "Lee" Tainter took both the grouper pool and the AJ pool with a 22 lb gag and a 43 lb AJ. Nice job Tainter! George Fox took the snapper pool with a 8 lb mango! Congrats everyone!

Both the Viking Superstar and Gulfstar returned today with similar EXCELLENT results!! Capt Rich reported that fishing on Friday night was ok and that Saturday saw some uncomfortable weather. By around 4 in the afternoon, the weather calmed down and the fish started biting. Capt. Carl reports that the Superstar (with the Equibore charter) started fishing at 3:00am at the Middle Grounds and right away, "the mangos were flying! We caught mangos, red groupers, scamps, and progies. When the sun came up, we bounced around and caught groupers, but the dolphins were terrorizing us by stealing fish…so we took a ride and got away from them. Then, the gags and red groupers were on fire! We landed many, but lost many more. There were also some kingfish in the mix! As night fell, the snappers lit up again, and many limits were filled. At 2:30am, we took a ride inshore to hunt more groupers. We found more gags, and amberjacks as well. When the boxes were full, we headed for home and got back early. Thanks to Mike Boyer and company for a fantastic trip, and MANY good times and laughs!

Capt Rich reported the same weather conditions. They had lots of red grouper, mangrove snapper and a respectable amount of gags. The Gulfstar anglers also brought home kingfish, amberjacks and porgies. Capt Rich and Capt Carl jumped back on the Gulfstar for a quick turn around trip, we haven't gotten any details yet.

The Superstar fished Friday night for night Snapper and Grouper. The weather and the fishing was not bad on the first and second drop we landed many short grouper, 1 keeper grouper about 15lbs and some decent snapper.

The weather got VERY bumpy after that, making it difficult to hold bottom even with 8 ounce sinkers. We drilled it out and picked at some more fish here and there. We moved around a bunch more times but things were slow. At about 2:30am the wind backed off some and the fish started to bite a bit better; all in all a slow night.

The Gulfstar was chartered on Sat morning, departure time was delayed an hour or so to let things calm down some out there and calm down they did! By noon it was flat calm. The fisherman on the Gulfstar had non stop Grouper action on every drop. The short grouper were biting and mixed in were the keepers after releasing lots of undersize grouper and breaking off many larger fish the fish box had a nice pile of keeper Gag Grouper and a few Mangrove Snapper in it and the fisherman had weary arms.

The two boats fished the same area with the same bait, I guess the weather was not on our side Friday night. Overall the fishing is excellent now so call and get out fishing because "you cant catch a grouper sittin on your pooper!" See you soon, Capt Rich

The 12 Hour Night Snapper Full Moon Special WILL SAIL TONIGHT! NO RESERVATIONS NECESSARY! The Superstar will leave at 6PM, do not miss the boat!

The Gulfstar will fish Half Day trips this Friday and Monday through Wednesday of next week. (Nov 26, 27 and 28). Departing at 11 AM, returning at 4 PM, costing only $40!

The Superstar is also planning an 8 HOUR ALL DAY trip on Monday, Nov 26.

727-938-5300 or simply book online! Any questions feel free to call!

SUNDAY, November 18, 2007

Capt. Carl just returned from our 44 hour trip with a great show of fish!! The weather was flat and beautiful the whole weekend and the fish were biting!! We started off with a bang, according to Capt. Carl. The mangos were biting pretty good, and the Red Groupers were coming up all over, and were all nice keepers! When daybreak came, we tried a large ledge for groupers and Ajs, but only had a few AJ bites, and busted off a LOT of fish, so, we moved on. We worked around the grounds until about 1 pm catching scamps, red groupers, porgies, etc., but things were slow. Then, we moved off to a wreck that produced a pair of 25 pound gags, along with some Ajs. After that, we moved on for our late afternoon slam!! There were more Red Groupers, lots of Gags, mangoes, and everything else biting like crazy into the night! By 11pm, the boat was at our Red Grouper limit, most anglers had their snapper limits, and we had kings coming as well!! Capt. Jerry tried some other spots that produced big Vermillion Snappers, and MORE GAGS!! The next morning we found some more Ajs on another wreck to round things out! It was a great trip, with Jim taking the Grouper pool with a 25 pound gag, Stainley Tainter took the AJ pool with a 34 pounder, and Earl Baptiste (ALL THE WAY FROM TORONTO!!!) won the snapper pool with a 9.8 lb mango! Thanks everyone!

The Viking Superstar returned from our 44 hour Middle Grounds trip just hours ago with some JUMBO VIKING SIZE FISH HANGING!! Capt Carl reports that the first night saw steady action with mango snappers, scamp groupers, red groupers, and a couple of gag groupers. When the first light of day came along, he stopped on a 40 ft ledge and the VIKING Amberjacks were biting!! We put a number of these in the boat, with two fish weighing in at over 70 pounds!! After that, the day bite seemed to have slowed down, with just a few porgies and snappers being caught, so after a number of drops, Capt Carl moved offshore to a wreck that produced more amberjacks, some big American Red Snappers that unfortunately had to be thrown back, and some big lane snappers. After the wreck, we moved to our sunset area and our first drop produced over a dozen gag groupers and a bunch of Red Groupers…as well as mangos. As night fell, the mango fishing got better and better, and many anglers filled their limits. We also saw more red, gag, and scamp groupers, as well as a couple of kingfish. The next morning, we tried a couple more big ledges and were rewarded with some more gag and red groupers, as well as Amberjacks. It was a pretty good trip. Be sure to check out the pics in our photo gallery!!

Vikings of Tarpon Springs is celebrating Veterans Day on Sunday, November 11th! In order to honor all American Veterans, the Gulfstar is offering Half Price to all Vets with proper ID. The Gulfstar will leave the dock at 11 AM and return at 4 PM.

Regular fare is $40, but for American Vets with proper ID the cost is $20. All tackle and cut bait, fishing license, parking, ice, stringers and coffee are included in the price of the trip.

Come and enjoy a day fishing aboard the Viking Gulfstar! NO RESERVATIONS NECESSARY FOR THIS ONE!

The Superstar is heading up the river right now, finishing up the Cobb Construction Charter. Capt. Rich just called in via radio and reports fantastic weather and awesome fishing. The group from Cobb saw a beautiful, flat, calm day and have 35 keeper gag grouper up to 16 lbs. Lots of shorts were released. Great job, guys!

Capt. Rich and the crew will be ready to do it all again tomorrow. We have a 12 Hour Grouper trip leaving the dock at 7am. Make your reservations online or just show up! See you in the morning!

The grouper bite has been on fire so Capt. Rich has added a 12 Hour Grouper trip to this Sunday's schedule. The Superstar willo depart at 7AM and return 7PM. Give us a call to get your reservation in! See you Sunday morning!

The Viking Superstar returned Tuesday afternoon from our Southeast Tackle Liquidators charter.

After Mookie cooked up chicken and steaks for everybody on Sunday evening, we headed out at eight o'clock towards the grounds. We started fishing around two am, in not so perfect weather conditions, and saw a slow pick of mangrove snappers, vermillion snappers, red grouper, and porgies. When the sun came up, we tried a couple more spots on the middle grounds and picked some more red grouper, gag grouper, and American red snappers.

Capt. Rich decided to head a bit further offshore into deeper water, where one drop produced a bail job of American red snappers. Vince caught his red snapper limit on that one drop! After that we searched around in deep water for groupers with little success. We did pick many nice size red groupers, but the gags were few and far between. After that we came back into the middle grounds, stopped on a big ledge where we caught amberjacks up to forty pounds. We stayed at that spot until the sun went down, and the vermillion snappers were biting their heads off with some mangroves in the mix as well.

Throughout that night, we picked away at more mangroves, vermilions, and scamp groupers. Around three a.m., we decided to head inshore in search of more gag groupers. Each spot produced a couple of keepers, and we fished until noon before heading back to the dock.

All and all, it was a great trip! A huge thanks goes out to Vince and Gary of Southeast Tackle Liquidators for putting together yet another awesome trip!

The Superstar returned from our 44hr trip with a decent catch. We started fishing at 1:30am Sat. morning and saw a slow pick of mangos, ARS, and Red Groupers. During the daytime on Saturday, we picked away at Gags, Red Groupers, mangos, vermillions, scamps, American Reds, and porgies. The second night saw an improvement in snapper fishing where some anglers were able to fill their limits. The second day, we stopped at 3 different wrecks and were rewarded with big amberjacks, some gags, and more American Reds. Mary Towler took the grouper pool with a 16 lb gag, Randy Randell took the snapper pool with a 9 lb ARS, and Stainley Tainter took the AJ pool with a 52 lb donkey! Congrats everyone, and we look forward to another great season! The Superstar will head right back out tonight to the Middle Grounds on the annual Southeast Tackle charter. We will get a report up as soon as we get back!

The Mosaic Company of Plymouth, MN spent a Half Day fishing Wednesday on the Gulfstar. They did great! Doug and the rest of his group came home with 2 keeper gags and released over 100 short gag groupers. Plenty of sea bass and grunts were caught and a cobia was released. We are hoping to see the Mosaic Company spend another day fishing with us again soon.

Capt. Rich took the Gulfstar on another Half Day trip yesterday. Over 40 short gag groupers were released with 5 keepers. They also caught many sea bass and grunts plus released a black tip shark.

The Gulfstar has a full schedule of Half Day fishing, be sure to check out the link above. Our first 16 Hour Extended Day of the season is sailing on Thursday, Octobert 25 and 8 Hour All Day trips will start on Monday, November 5th.

The Superstar finally is back in Tarpon Springs! Capt. Rich and Capt. Steven arrived early Saturday morning and preparations have already begun for the 44 hour Middle Grounds trip on Friday, October 19. Once we get home on Sunday afternoon, the crew will turn around for the Annual Southeast Tackle Charter to the Middle Grounds.

October kicks off the beginning of our new season, so be sure you check out the 2007 / 2008 schedule. This year we have something for everyone! Beginning on October 15 the Gulfstar will offer Half Day fishing all week and 12 Hour Night Snapper trips on Friday and Saturday nights. Check out the schedule regarding the 4 Day Long Range and Deepwater trips! The Superstar will continue doing to the Middle Grounds every Friday, 8 Hour All Day trips on Mondays and 16 Hr Extended Day trips most Thursdays.

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The Superstar will be back in Florida in a few weeks and ready to hit the Middle Grounds on October 19. This season the Superstar crew will continue 8 Hour Day trips on Mondays, 16 Hour Extended Day trips every other Thursday and 44 Hour Middle Grounds trips every weekend.

08/17/2007 Capt Jerry Deepwater special Capt Jerry talked the crew and I into doing a special deepwater trip very different then the deepwater trips we have done in the past. On this trip we would target Mutton snapper, Scamp grouper and true black grouper).With the exception of the scamp, these are not the species that we normally target and only catch by accident. The trip sold out with mostly regulars that were looking to change things up a bit and fish for something different. We departed at 8pm on Friday night and ran through the night until dawn, yes that’s right almost 11 hrs. The bite was a slow pick of very nice scamp grouper and a couple of Gag grouper with one true black mixed in. we had one good charge of scamps and a couple of large amberjack during the day. Later that afternoon we ran another twenty miles to get in place for our night bite. When we arrived the fish finder was on fire showing fish all over, we anchored up and, well the fish weren’t ready. We sat for 1 hr until sundown waiting for them to bite but only on Mutton Snapper wanted to say high. The good part was that we now know that the muttons were in town. We then made a small move, reset the anchor and started to pack and the champagne porgies then the yellowtail snappers started biting some more big amberjack and then finally the Muttons started coming over the rails. The bite never got crazy but we had a good steady pick of very nice size Muttons some over 20lbs until about 3 am on Sunday. Most of our passengers have never caught mutton snapper so the smiles were all from ear to ear. PICS ARE COMING SOON CHECK THE GALLERY The trip overall was awesome, we never had a full-on insane bite but we caught a bunch of really awesome snapper and grouper. We did a lot of riding, more than we wanted to but the end result was happy clients and two full fish boxes. John blouse took the snapper pool with the largest mutton, jeff bobineaux walked away with the grouper jackpot and Wally Sobek had the winning amberjack WATCH OUR SCHEDULE FOR MORE NEW AND EXCITING TRIPS COMING UP

The crew is really looking forward to the 4 Day Long Range trip on August 26th. We will be traveling a bit to fish for Mahi Mahi, Wahoo, Tuna, Marlin and Sailfish. The Gulfstar will also be targeting deepwater groupers like Snowy, Yellow Edge, Scamp, Kitty Mitchell, Mystic and Blacks. During the night hours we will drift for Swordfish and Tuna.

This one is limited to only 10 passengers, so make your reservation quick. Call the office for details 727-938-5300.

This past Monday 8/13 on our 12 hour snapper trip we saw fantastic fishing with plenty of action. Lots of Grouper, (mostly undersized) about 2 dozen Mangrove Snappers, Bluefish, Sharks and Key West Grunts. Clint Moore captured a nice keeper Gag Grouper and seven Mangrove Snappers, Kenny Himes stuggled all night with mostly small fish, then caught an awesome Mangrove snapper just as Capt. Rich anounced it was time to bring up their lines so they could start back home. We still have room this Monday,,,,,call to reserve your spot today!

The Gulfstar left the dock Friday night with 14 passengers. The weather was a bit cranky during the ride out, but became decent once we reached the fishing grounds.

Fishing was excellent after the full moon; everyone caught lots of mangrove snapper and red grouper, huge AJs to 40 pounds and lots of awesome gag grouper.

Friday night we picked away at the red grouper, red snapper and mangos, on Saturday afternoon they started biting on dead bait.

Saturday night we fished a lot of really small spots allowing us to catch some trophy snappers. Fishing stayed steady this way until 2am.

Then we made a 50 mile run to the gag grouper grounds, lots of action for over 3 hours. We finished out the trip and headed home with lots of happy customers. Anthony Derosa won the mangrove snapper pool; Tom Holsman took the grouper pool, while Austin Holler finished up the AJ pool.

A big congratulation goes out to Tom Porter of St. Augustine, FL. Tom won a Free 44 Hour Middle Grounds in our July drawing! See on the Gulfstar soon, Tom!

Anyone interested in the 4 Day Long Range trip on August 26 should call the office at 727-938-5300 asap. It is expected to be an awesome one!

Sorry for the delayed reports! The Gulfstar has been on back-to-back trips for the last two weeks, fishing has been awesome!

Last Mondays 12 Hour Night Snapper trip was a slow pick of mangroves and white grunts. Bill Grasso took the pool with a 3lb mango. We are looking forward to next Mondays trip which will fall on the full moon.

The last two 44 Hour Middle Grounds trips have provided excellent snapper and red grouper fishing; however the gag grouper made us work a little harder.

The 2 Day Deepwater Special was a huge success. We fished between 400 and 600 feet, we caught LOTS of yellow edge grouper and scamp grouper, tons and tons of porgies mixed in (2-4lb), big red snappers and large Bliners (vermillion snapper. We caught a couple really nice kitty mitchells and gag grouper in the 20lb range. Check out the photo gallery to see the 3lb Longtail Bass. Everyone had an awesome time and wanted to know when we would be putting another trip like this together. Answer, August 26.

The Gulfstar will depart at 8pm, August 26 on a 4 Day Long Range Offshore Trip! Get your reservations in quick, this one will be limited to 10 passengers! Call for details.

4 DAY PELAGIC BONANZA The Gulfstar was loaded with Capt. Rich his crew and 10 very excited passengers. The long time planning for the 4-day Viking Gulf of Mexico Pelagic Species Bonanza was finally coming to fruition! At 8pm, Sunday, July 8th the Capt and his crew set off determined to catch a wide spectrum of fish in the Gulf. While trolling toward a spot, Capt. Rich stopped to fish for some bait and then steamed all night long toward their destination. With the sun coming up and a hot breakfast of eggs, bacon, ham and sausage with steaming hot coffee under our belts, we put out the trolling spread and boated a Wahoo instantly. That morning the Wahoo were hungry! We on the other hand were being fed sausage and pepper sandwiches…NY style. As our food was digesting we did a deep drop and caught snowy grouper, some great looking yellow edge grouper, champagne porgies around 8 lbs, groupers up to 25lbs. We continued trolling offshore until nightfall; it was a great start to the trip! Once nightfall came we dropped the swordfish lights (Sword Light distributed by Rumble Fish, Inc. 954-816-6561). We drifted all night, chumming, but it proved to be a very slow night. Once dawn came we began to troll again, by 10am Capt. Rich found the body of water he was looking for. Then it was FULL ON MAHI-MAHI BITE! We trolled most of the day, releasing the smaller fish. In the mix we caught ½ dozen Wahoo, and raised a blue marlin; however we couldn’t get him to take the bait. By sundown, the tired crew had boated 8 Wahoo, and 45 Mahi (up to 35lbs) in the box, many were released. We continued to drift for swordfish, fired up the BBQ and feasted on NY strip steaks, potato salad, etc. We drifted and chummed over night and caught more dolphin, but the swordfish continued to elude us. The next morning we had immediate Mahi & Wahoo action while trolling. Before sundown the Wahoo bite consisted of 15 and 25 more Mahi (coming in over 15lbs). During the afternoon Capt. Rich found a submerged Dory. He immediately tossed in a diamond jig, as he did around any floating objects he came across. (Check out the photo gallery to see a picture of Capt. Rich with the Wahoo caught on a jig. He used his custom jigging rod, built by Handler Custom Rods in Cape Canaveral, FL 321-543-8628) After a hot dinner, they steamed 80 miles to a spot Capt. Rich had wanted to fish since bringing the Gulfstar home from Louisiana last year. Once they got to that spot they broke put out the electric reels and instantly had 4 break-offs. They quickly regrouped and whacked 6 snowy grouper, weighing in between 5-51.2 lbs. They saw a few more yellow edge grouper and even a few cutlassfish. Things quickly slowed down. They started to steam home around 4:30am on Thursday morning, stopping a few times for some snapper and red groupers. The Gulfstar handled itself beautifully! We had plenty of fresh water for showers and the air conditioned bathrooms proved to be awesome perk. Keep tuned in for updates regarding more of these exciting trips being scheduled. Captain Rich is planning on doing a few starting August. Check back often! A href="http://www.vikingfleet.com/vikingnews/templates/Fishing.aspx?articleid=71&zoneid=14"> COMPLETE GULFSTAR SCHEDULE

July 6 2007 44 hour Florida Middle Grounds This weekend the bite was FULL ON the mangrove snapper, American red snapper, Red Grouper and Gag Grouper made for an easy trip. Friday night we started fishing at 11:30 pm and it was a good bite of Vermillion and Mangrove that lasted about 1.5 hrs the second drop was insane nonstop until sunrise. After breakfast capt jerry took the helm and put us over some real nice red grouper, the next few moves things got slow we then moved further offshore and pick a few nice red snapper and a few more red grouper. Sundown, the gags and the mangroves had a party under the boat topping off our mangrove limit we then moved around a few more times trying to avoid the mangrove snapper at 2am we took off for a 3.5 hr ride to gag grouper and red snapper heaven the sunrise bite was knock down with 4-8 lb red snapper and 8-12 lb gag grouper. Al leahy of FAST GLASS won the grouper jackpot and manny oliveria sr won the snapper jackpot and dave harmer landed the large amberjack.

12 HR MONDAY NIGHT SNAPPER with a real light load we went offshore 20 miles and managed to get a decent bite of mangrove snapper and gag grouper clint moore was high hook with 2 gags and 9 mangrove snapper. The Summer snapper bite is on so book now

The weather was once again awesome out on the grounds, the fishing was so-so this weekend the snappers never started chewing like crazy instead it was a steady pick all day and night. The day bite gave us some nice red groupers and red snapper, at sundown jackie gunter put a hurting on a 200 plus pound goliath grouper at daybreak we had a decent gag and red snapper bite. In the end we scraped together a pretty decent catch

Capt. Rich has just added an awesome trip to our schedule; we are now taking reservations for a Special 2 Day Deep Water trip on Tuesday, July 17th.

This 44 hour trip will depart on July 17th at 11pm and return on Thursday, July 19th at 7pm. Electric reels are ok to bring, we will also have them for rent at $50 each. NO spinning tackle for bottom fishing and 80 lb. test is a minimum requirement. We will be fishing between 180 and 360 feet.

The cost is $550 per person, this will include fishing license, frozen and live bait, parking and of course all meals and beverages. In addition, the limit will be 10 anglers!

Get your reservations in quickly, this one will fill up before you know it!

This weekends Middle Grounds trip was very successful! First of all, the weather was as good as it gets all weekend, with no wind and seas less than a foot! We started out fishing at 2:00am Sat morning and the fish were biting! For the first couple of hours of the trip we caught mangos, gags, scamps, vermillion snappers, and Red Grouper. Most of the red grouper, however, were short, so we moved to a different area and it was lock and load action! Most Red Grouper were keepers, and it wasn't long before we caught our boat limit of them and had to start throwing keeper sized fish back! We also picked away at the gag groupers as well. At around noon, we headed off into deeper water with little success. We only caught a few American Red Snapper and porgies. When we came back inshore to the Middle Grounds that evening, fishing was on again, with American Red Snappers, mangos, and gags being caught. We picked all night long, and most people, after catching their limit, went to bed for the night. When the sun came up Sunday morning, we tried a few wrecks and caught more American Red Snappers, kingfish, Jacks, and more scamps. It was a great trip with great people! Scott Wagner took both the Amberjack pool, with a 18 pounder, and the grouper pool with a 14 lb gag. Benjamin Gilliam Jr. won the snapper pool with a 12 pound American Red. Way to go guys!

The Gulfstar returned from its 1st Jig Em Up Special and it wasn't exactly what we had in mind. We started in 110ft and worked to 160 ft. Every stop produced bites right away, but then they quit. We caught Red Grouper, Scamp Grouper, mangrove snapper, vermillion snapper, American Red Snapper, Bonito, and porgchops on the jigs. Hammered diamond jigs 4oz and 6oz worked, as well as Shimano Butterfly jigs, 5oz to 7oz. Everyone worked hard at it all day, and finally, with just a few hours left in the trip, we broke out the bait. Along with the other fish mentioned, we also caught yellowtail snapper and gag grouper.

The Gulfstar returned this morning from a 12 hour night trip and fishing was slow. The weather was great, but the fish did not cooperate. We started at a wreck in 85 ft of water and ionly produced a few. Then, another spot in 82 ft of water produced a few more, but that was it. From there, we worked inshore everything down to 55 ft. and only saw a few here and there. We had a handful of mangos, gags, sea bass, grunts, and a couple kings.

The Gulfstar just returned from another successful Middle Grounds Trip. We started off fishing for snappers and we had just a slow, but steady pick the first night. Then, as the sun came up, we looked around for some groupers but only a handful were to be had…so we decided to go out to some deeper water and look around. Every stop, we picked just a few, then moved, picked a few more, but that was about it. Then, we hit a wreck which produced a non-stop bite of American Red Snappers. All rods doubled over and we had a blast bailing them. After that, we poked around some more and picked a couple more fish. At sun down, we started hammering the mangos, ARS, and scamps again. We made one stop at @ 9pm and BAILED big mangos for 3 hours until everyone on the boat caught their limits! After that, Capt. Carl decided to move inshore to find more groupers and he did. Unfortunately, only a couple were landed as most were broke off. Then, after the last drop helped put some Amberjacks in the boat, the trip was done. It was a lot of fun, and a great group of people. Miles Charlesworth of Orlando, FL took the grouper pool with a 16.3 lb gag…Bill Grasso of Spring Hill, FL (finally) took the snapper pool with a 8.5 lb American Red…and Peter Eidenberg of Wesley Chapel, FL took the AJ with a 19 pounder. Congrats to everyone!

June 8, 2007 GULFSTAR 44HR MIDDLE GROUNDS Great weather, all pass arrived early so we departed early. The fishing on the first night was not super fast paced but slow and steady. Saturday we went offshore to the 40 fathom break were we landed some very nice Red Snapper, Red Grouper, and a large Gag Grouper. Later Sat night we had very good snapper fishing until daybreak. The Ball Family ran away with the jackpots DJ, Do, and Nick captured 3 awesome fish a large red snapper, a huge mango and a 20lb Gag Grouper. CK out the awesome pics in our gallery

The Viking Superstar just returned from a 36 hour Middle Grounds Special with a nice load of fish. We had a nice window of good weather that made a huge difference. Going out was a bit rough, but the weather improved throughout the trip. The first night saw great action with mangos, red groupers, and scamp groupers being caught. The day bite was picky, with just a few Ajs, a few American Red Snappers, and a handful of gags being landed…though the mangos and porgies were biting very well. The second night saw decent action on the snapper front as well, and topped off most limits for our passengers. Mark Gunther from Sarasota took the grouper pool with a 16 pound gag… Paul Asherman from Tampa took the AJ pool with a 20 pounder…and Steve Grant from Georgia split top honors with Tony Spencer from Tampa for the largest snapper pool with a pair of 7.7 pound mangos! Congrats to everyone. We also want to thank everyone for another great season for the Viking Superstar. This was our last trip of the year and we look forward to seeing everyone when we return in November. The Gulfstar will be here all year round and running Middle Grounds trips and others all summer. We will see you then! 16 HR EXTENDED DAY 05/24 WINDY REPORT BUT NOT TOO BAD OUT THERE, it even got calm for a couple of hours. The fishing was great most of the day, the first few drops we were in the American reds real thick BUT they were mostly shorts. A little shift and we were in the snapper (ones that we could keep) Yellowtail, Lane, mangrove, vermillion, and Red. Porgys, red grouper and short gags. Finally we landed an awesome pair of gags fist one 12lbs and the second 22lbs. Lots of snapper and lots of Scamp grouper two nice Gag Grouper round out the trip making another great day had by all. JB Bolsvert won the jackpot with the 22lb Gag grouper and the 4.5lb American red snapper

LAZYBONES Monday 05/21 awesome weather 24 miles offshore lots of short Gag grouper and Key west grunts. We Captured Three Keeper Gags with the biggest going 14.5lbs. Lots of action and great weather" WHAT A DAY"

May 18 & 19 2007 The Viking Superstar went out on a 44 hr trip with Capt Paul Forsberg at the helm, we had to twist his arm only a little bit to come out of retirement for the weekend. The weather forecast was not very nice but it was fishable. The night bite was very good but the day bite was slow on the Middle grounds. The Superstar landed at 2pm with lots of snappers and some very nice gags. I had the Gulfstar out on an extended day trip 60+ miles offshore and had a good day catching yellowtail, lane, vermillion, red and mangrove snapper. The scamp grouper bite was on with many keepers coming over rail. Sunday the Gulfstar was chartered by Kokolakis Construction Company, the weather was much nicer but the fishing was veeeerrry slow, the fish just wouldnt bite, 60-100 ft of water it didnt make a difference. We came back home with one nice red grouper and a few white grunts. The guys had a great time laughing and joking making the best of it. We have a special 36 hr offshore trip on Friday 5/25 at 8 pm that returns Sunday at 8 am that we still have some spots available CALL NOW The Gulfstar is sold out for the weekend Congrats to all pool winners!

Friday May 25ths Middle Grounds Trip is the last trip on The Viking Superstar which still has openings. The 36 Hour Trip will depart the dock at 8pm on Friday and return at 8am on Sunday morning. Fishing has been EXCELLENT on the latest Middle Grounds Trips so hop on what promises to be a great Trip. Please also note that even though The Viking Superstar is heading up North for the Summer, The New High Speed 65 ft Gulfstar will be sailing all summer from Tarpon Springs.

Friday May 11th. The Viking Superstar and Gulfstar headed out Friday night to the Middle Grounds and both boats came home FULL of fish. Capt. Carl and Capt. Jerry took out the Superstar while Capt. Rich and Captain George took out the Gulfstar. Fishing the first night was full of action, with mangos, ARS, Scamps, and even Gags coming over the rails. Capt. Carl reports, " The Middle Grounds are really coming coming alive with the warmer water temps. We had a Sailfish swim right up to the boat, as well as Mahi mahis". The day bite was a little on the slow side, although Big ARS, Red Groupers and Gag Groupers were landed all day. There were also big Kingfish, Blackfin Tuna, Amberjacks and Cobia in the mix. The fishing is getting VERY GOOD and should remain so all Summer long.

Gulfstar, 27 days of engine room detail and the new 770 HP high speed Iveco diesel engines are ready for action. The sea trials with the coast guard went awesome they inspected the installation and said that it was perfect. The cruise speed is 20 kts and it tops out at 24.6. Since January we remodeled the interior including the heads and the shower, we added a new flat screen TV and a DVD player with surround sound and navigation electronics including satellite weather.

Oct 23 14 Hour Night Snapper $ 155

Oct 25 Half Day $ 55

Oct 30 44 Hour Middle Grounds $ 480

Nov 6 14 Hour Night Snapper $ 155

Nov 13 44 Hour Middle Grounds $ 480

Nov 20 44 Hour Middle Grounds $ 480

Do you have any photos taken aboard the Gulfstar? If you have taken any pictures of your own during a trip on the Gulfstar, we would love for you to forward them to us. Send us pics from Half Days, 14 Hour, 18 Hour, 24 Hour, 44 Hour, and 4 Day. Maybe we will have a photo contest, who knows? Email them to vikingfleet@hotmail.com.

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Report from Capt. George

The 48 Hr Capt Jerry Special extended weekend trip turned into a very unique trip for all attending. The main players for this weekend were grouper and mutton snapper.

This trip had a 6pm cast off. Our first drop will be around the 100 mile mark with the target depths to 400 feet, not for the weak of heart. A quick stop to pick some bigger bait off a local wreck was included. After loading the bait well, the course was set for a long and bumpy run. At day break we set up on a wreck in 180 feet that brought a quick pick of gags, AJs and red grouper. By sundown on Sat evening we got ready to set up in 380 feet for more grouper, but the wind and current against each other made it impossible to be in that depth. Capt Jerry changed his game plan and moved to 270 feet, catching some gags and large red grouper (aka firetrucks). We also finished off the AJ limit.

Capt Jerry had been planning this trip for a long time with a gag and mutton showdown. When the time was right, he moved to the mutton mound where dreams came true. The average was easily 12 pounds with the high being 24 pounds on my Boga grip. Along with the muttons, many flag yellowtail and mangos four lbs or greater. Overall the trip ended with many quality fish and happy customers, with great pictures to follow. James Rinaldi won the grouper pool with a 26 lb gag and Carlos Boetticher won the snapper with a 20 lb red. Another great trip.

Capt Rich just added a special 48 Hour trip to the schedule on July 17th. The Gulfstar will be fishing for big American Reds, Gags, Mangove and Mutton Snapper in some deeper water, between 160 and 250 feet. The fare will be $520 and include all rods reels, tackle, meals, snacks and beverages.

Middle Grounds Report

Capt Jerry and Capt Dave reported an excellent first drop on this weekends Middle Grounds trip, calling it a Mangrove Snapper Bonanza!

The rest of the trip was a steady pick of gag grouper, red and strawberry grouper. Nice looking American Red Snapper, Mangroves, BLiners Porgies, Amberjacks and King Mackerel. Unfortunately, there were some very nice fish lost, but not from lack of trying! Good job, everyone! Photos in the gallery.

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IRON MAN TRIP

The Gulfstar left last Monday and returned on Thursday afternoon from another fantastic deepwater trip. Capt. Rich did another great job of putting the 10 anglers on a huge variety of deepwater species. Check out the Queen Snapper, Kitty Mitchell, Scamp, Yellow Edge Grouper, Mutton Snapper, Yellow Tail Snapper, Mahi, Gag Grouper, American Red Snapper, porgies and more in the photo gallery.

It was another turn and burn week for Capt. Rich and the Crew. After scrubbing up from the 60 Hour trip, the Gulfstar headed back out to the Middle Grounds. A group from Gainesville, FL chartered the boat for a 44 Hour, due back tomorrow at 4pm. Look for more pics and a report from Capt Rich.

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44 Hour Report from Capt. George

The Gulfstar left Friday night with a sold out trip with everyone having visions of hand caught fresh gulf fish dinners. All were rewarded with a quality and quantity catch.

Leaving the dock 15 minutes early, the weather was actually perfect the whole weekend with 1 to 2 foot seas and light winds making the heat bearable. The Gulfstar made a great platform for a very good trip.

The first stop at 3:30am was a beat down of mangos, pink porgies, b-liners and red grouper. With the moon overhead at 5:30am on stop two, some very nice gags and American red snappers showed and tested the skills of some anglers. While some had a slow start, they all caught up in the closing hours of a great trip. An added bonus to the catch was a couple dozen mahi, several kingfish up to 30lbs, gags up to 25lbs, mangos to 6lbs, red grouper to 15lbs, American reds to 18lbs and b-liners to 4lbs. A 7 foot lemon shark ate a hundred or so pounds of fish before he also was caught and then released.

Congrats to the pool winners! John Hendry won the snapper pool, Grayson Stack took the AJ pool and Jason Hedman won with a nice grouper.

The Gulfstar will be cleaning up and heading out on the 60 Hour Iron Man trip tomorrow night at 8pm. There are two spots available, so if you are interested, call Lisa in the office asap.

The Gulfstar had a fantastic Half Day trip yesterday! Today we are fishing with Hernando Fishing Club and expect some great grouper and snapper fishing. The weather is cooperating, lets see if the fish do!

REPORT FROM CAPT RICH - 4 DAY PELAGIC TRIP

With a forecast for perfect weather, Captain Rich and the crew were very anxious to get out to the deep loop current for the first time this season. All the passengers checked in early allowing us to leave the dock two hours ahead of schedule. The fist planned drop was 177 miles offshore, and with a perfect ride out weather wise, the passengers were able to enjoy a few movies and retire comfortably to their bunks.

At first light Chef Allen whipped up a fantastic breakfast while the mates Keith and Sean started setting out the trolling spread. After setting the lures just right in the water, we caught two wahoos, followed by several mahis and barracudas. Later that afternoon we did a drop for the deep water grouper catching snowy groupers up to 18 pounds, smaller than usual, but not bad. As the sun started to get low we needed to move into swordfish territory. We drifted for swords all night, with a few mystery bites and a couple large mahi.

The next morning we put out the trolling spread and trolled to an area about 60 miles away that Captain Rich wanted to investigate. Along the way we caught several more Mahis, Barracuda and a few yellowfin and blackfin tuna. As sundown approached we started swordfishing again. Immediately we caught several large sharks, up to 12 feet long, and even had a 15 foot tiger shark circling the boat. Surprisingly the Tiger shark was not interested in the two large Mahis we were reeling in. During the course of the night we had several mystery bites, until finally we hooked one that definitely appeared to be the mighty sword. The Angler was Paul and after a 45 minute battle Capt Rich and the crew gaffed and landed the Swordfish. The rest of the drift was uneventful.

After sunrise we started trolling again and made our way to some 500-600 foot drops which produced deepwater grouper and porgies. We then trolled back off shore for more swordfishing and ended up with 2 more sword, several mahi and sharks. Photos will follow shortly. All in all we had awesome weather, good fishing and a great time. Looking forward to our next pelagic trip in July!!

MIDDLE GROUNDS REPORT

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Last Fridays 44 Hour Middle Grounds trip was a full boat of 27 passengers. Capt. Jerry and I flipped a coin as to the direction of the Viking Star, which was a heads up, by the way. Many think we use experience and our vast knowledge to find fish every on every trip, ha ha. Heads and tails have caught more fish then anybody !!!

The first drop was at 3am, it produced very little for the box, same till 5:30am. The first real bite of the trip began with a couple gags and very nice above average mangos making their way to the coolers. After daybreak the sea laid down, but so did the bite. After breakfast we started the painful seek and hunt with a slow bite thru the day. Saturday night was a better than average pick with several gags and red grouper, with hefty bee liners, mangos, porgies and kingfish showing up.

Again, NMFS needs to come out with us to see the red snapper are alive and well. No need for an obituary notice on them yet, as many were vented and released.

With the long ride to the fish, our last stop found us at a wreck or spring on Sunday morning, for some AJs and grouper action. We were not disappointed, with many AJs and a couple gags.

Thanks to all that endured and enjoyed another great trip to the Florida Middle Grounds.

Capt. George

Capt. Jerry

Well, this trip was at the least one for the book. A late departure was needed since there no water to leave the dock at 8pm. The departure at 10pm had us to the first drop at 5:30am.

Mangos were the first to visit the deck with a solid 1hr bite, as well as porgys, beeliners and a few red groupers; a very good first drop. The rest of the trip was pick and move to get a good trip together.

Some very nice fish hit the deck despite the loss of all the live bait. By the end of Sat the near extinct red snapper made its presence. In the last 3 trips to the grounds just the Viking Star alone, has vented and released over TWO THOUSAND RED SNAPPER. Is the NMFS paying attention?

A group of anglers fishing forward starboard came up with three very nice scamps 22in to 31in, very nice. Sundays last stop produced some fast AJ action to close the trip. The 7 plus hour ride to the barn gets us back at 5:30pm. Overall even with the weather and the loss of live bait, we put together a very good trip. Lots of fish at the dock and happy anglers. Captain George

GULFSTAR REPORT This past weekend we had decent weather and fishingon the Gulfstar. The guys from Carrollwood Baptist Church fished with us Saturday on a half day trip. The catch was Key west snappers, porgies, seabass and a few spanish mackerel. They also caught and released loads of undersized grouper.

Sundays trip gave the anglers even better fishing, the action was for the most part, non stop. The selection of fish was the same as Saturday's catch with the added bounus of a Hog fish

Great Middle Grounds Report from Capt. George

Tues, April 21

The departure of the 8pm Middle Grounds trip with 21 passengers was on the books. After a mandatory speech of safety and fish rules, the long ride to the grounds began.

By 3:30 am lines were in, and started a very long night of picking a few here and there. Some nice mangos in the 6 and 7lb range were picked throughout the weekend, along with gags and red grouper. No huge grouper, but many in the 10 to 15lb range. Several first timers to the grounds were content with chicken rigs, loaded with porgies and beeliners.

Steady is the best description for the entire trip with not one stop out producing the other. The only constant was NOAAs ability to provide another wrong forecast. We made over 50 drops this trip to keep bent rods. Whatever the reason, it has not been on fire yet, but when it happens we will let you know.

All day Saturday we picked mangos, gags, red grouper, some of the biggest grunt's I have seen offshore. Some getting up to 3 lbs, plus a few nice lane snappers. Saturdays dinner by Chef Allen included a fresh venison ham and pulled pork. Sundown till midnight we picked a good amount. The weather finally laid down 1am Sunday till 6am which made the rail comfortable for a welcome change. With the surface temp at 68 degrees it was odd to see mahi mahi chasing bait in the lights, and then came Flipper, who brought his posse with him, getting no less then 20 fish from us.

We fired up and made a ten mile run to the north to play with some AJs. At least they got the memo that we were coming, and they were hungry! 15 Ajs over 40lbs hit the deck, with a few smaller models in the box and a few more gags. Lines up was called by Capt Jerry and a 7hr ride to the dock followed.

Congrats to Peter Eidenberg for winning the grouper pool, Patrick Tara won with a nice AJ and Bill Meyers turned in a nice big snapper. Thanks to all the folks that fished with us and endured the slow but steady pick all weekend.

Capt George

14 Hour Night Fishing Report from Capt. Rich

Saturday, April 18

With a full boat of anxious anglers we departed at 8pm and headed offshore on a 14hr night trip. We steamed a few minutes over 3 hrs to 145 ft of water. The ride out was nice with flat calm seas and the first drop rewarded us with lots of variety, like Gag grouper, lane, mangrove, vermillion, yellowtail snapper, red porgies, key west grunts and a few bar jacks. We also released loads of undersized red grouper and many sharks.

Just after 1am the wind came on out of the southeast and changed the whole game for us. The boat swung with the wind moving us off the spot so we picked up anchor and started toward the next spot less than one mile away. It was lock and load fishing! Red snapper after red snapper coming over the rail, WOW right??? Wrong is the National Marine Fisheries service and other assorted lobbyist groups have proceeded to shorten the season year after year by saying these fish are being over fished. Anyway, the crew and I were very busy venting and releasing the red snapper with care. We stayed there for about 15 minutes waiting for the grouper to start, but the anglers could not get bait past the red snapper so we decided to move on. Just as I blurted out lines up, an angler on the bow nailed a fat gag grouper.

With the weather getting worse I wanted to hit as many spots as we could before it got too bad so we hauled anchor and went off. The next few spots gave us assorted snapper and porgy action and plenty of sharks. By 6:30am the seas we pretty nasty and it was definitely time to get home. The ride home was not like the ride out it was much bumpier and much longer.

Overall we put a decent catch together and had loads of action. I do believe if the weather had cooperated with us a few more hrs we would have had a slammer trip. The American Red Snapper season opens June 1, 2009 and I can’t wait!!!!

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Trip Added...we've been getting alot of phone calls about Half Day fishing next Saturday, April 25. Capt Rich just added a special morning trip, departing at 6:30am and returning at 11:30am.

Half Day trips are scheduled everyday from now through the end of April. We are still taking reservations for the 44 Hour Middle Grounds trips scheduled throughout the summer. Make your reservations online or by calling our office at 727-938-5300.

Half Day fishing trips depart at 11AM and returning at 4PM. The cost is $55 per person and only $25 for kids under 12. The fare includes rod and reel, bait and all tackle. Pack a lunch and drinks since the galley will not be open. We have everything else! Reservations are recommended.

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Capt Rich reported a very slow day of fishing today. Yesterdays storm came through with a vengance and stirred up the water, which caused the fish to not bite so well. With the weather getting better, we are hoping for a better day tommorrow. Walk ons are welcome Thursday morning.

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Another great day of fishing today! The Viking Star saw lots of action, great weather and lots of kids fishing for the first time. Even Viking mascots Buddy and Spinner had fun stealing sandwiches and bait!

Half Day Report! Capt Rich reported that yesterdays Half Day trip provided the Gulfstar with plenty of action. The fish were very hungry and were biting instantly. The three stops of the day provided a bunch of nice Mangrove Snappers, Key West Grunts, and Black sea bass, Porgies, and short Grouper and some Spanish mackerel. Greg from Polk County also released a Black tip shark. There was a southerly breeze yesterday making it a bit uncomfortable but the fish and the anglers did not seem to mind. Capt Rich is back at it today, this time on the Viking Star. The weather report looks awesome!

The 44 hour grouper re-opener was a much anticipated trip, with the weather outlook good, we left the dock with many anxious anglers. With a wicked spring cold front earlier in the week, there was a swell still lingering on Friday night, which made for a bumpy ride out. The swell led to a slow start at our first couple drops. By first light we had calm seas and a good charge of red grouper. As the day progressed the action continued to get better and better.

At sundown there was a quick flurry of red and gag grouper, followed by a slaughtering of B-liners up to 5 lbs and Mangoes up to 8 lbs. By midnight the bite slowed down and Captain Jerry went searching, stopping at various spots which yielded a slow pick. As daylight appeared, the Amberjack and the grouper bite turned on. With the intense action everybody was able to top off the boat’s fish hold for the last couple hours.

Captain Jerry hit several wrecks on the way back in, the last one being the most successful. Overall, it was a good trip with plenty of action. Even some of the exotic species came over the rail, namely hound fish and trumpet fish…looking forward to the next one!

LASTEST GULFSTAR REPORT: After the weather huffed and puffed all week, it finally backed off on Fri. afternoon. The Keystone Bible Church chartered the Gulf star for a half day on Saturday. The weather was awesome and the fishing good. They had lots of grouper and snapper action and mixed in were some Spanish mackerel.

On Sat night the Gulf star ran offshore on a 14 hr night trip again the weather was great but the fishing was pretty slow. The first stop was a wreck in 90 ft of water. There were hundreds of Amberjack swimming on the waters surface but not a one would eat anything we tried every bait, plug, jig we could think of but the Jacks simply would not eat. The American Red snapper on the other hand were extremely hungry we caught probably 200 hundred of them, the season is closed for them and our anglers released them with care. We did manage to get some Mangrove snapper and grouper we could keep off the wreck before we made a move. We made a bunch of stops that night with some spots catching nothing and some giving us a few keeper grouper and snapper. We did catch lots of short Grouper on most stops. The anglers tried very hard all night and seemed to have a good time while I pulled out the little hair I have left trying to find some fish that were hungry.

In the last few months I have been noticing a change in people it seems that the quantity of fish is being dwarfed by quality of time and the importance of enjoying life with the ones you love. Maybe it has something to do with the economy maybe not, who cares? The world is a much nicer place when everybody is smiling.

Capt Rich

OPENING DAY! Capt. Rich has added a 16 Hour Grouper Special to the schedule next week. The Gulfstar will depart on Wednesday, April 1 at 5am and return at 9pm. The cost is $185 per person, which includes rod and reel, frozen and live bait, all tackle plus meals and beverages.

The crew from yesterdays Half Day trip reported an awesome day! The anglers on board caught tons of Key West Snapper! They also had a mix of keeper size and short grouper, which were all released. The perfect weather helped make it another great trip.

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Capt. Jerry and Capt. George reported some very good fishing on yesterdays 24 Hour Snapper trip.

Capt. Jerry said that fishing was fast! The American Red Snapper catch and release became too many to count. They took over the bite and turned the mangrove bite right off.

The anglers on board the Viking Star caught and released over 80 gag groupers, 30 of which were keeper size. Capt. George reported an awesome AJ bite and that the porgys and b liners were biting pretty well too.

Congrats to the pool winners! Scott Myers took the grouper, Mike Bavis won snapper and Mike Boland took the AJ pool.

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Half Day Report

The Viking Star fished a Half Day trip yesterday. The 34 anglers had such a beautiful day on the water, they all agreed with Capt. Dave to stay out for an additional hour.

They caught tons of grunts, a few mangrove snapper and grey snappers. There were also lots of gag groupers thrown back and quite a few short red grouper. Beautiful weather, good fishing and a great group of passengers made for another successful trip aboard the Viking!

We will be offering Half Day trips everyday during February, except the 8 Hour All Day trip on Monday, Presidents Day, February 16. Reservations are required on all trips. Give us a call at the office 727-938-5300 with any questions.

We are expecting near perfect weather for this Saturday, February 7th on the Special 24 Hour Snapper trip! A light southern wind, seas 2 to 4 feet and temps in the 70s.

The cost is $265, this includes rod/reel, tackle, cut and live bait, meals, snacks and drinks. The boat will be leaving the dock at noon, so get your reservation in ASAP. 727 938 5300

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WALK ONS WELCOME! The Viking Star will be leaving tomorrow morning, Jan. 31 on the 20 Hour Crabtree Squeaker! Check in will begin at 3AM, departure at 4AM and will return at 11:59PM. The $250 fare includes all bait (cut and live), tackle, meals, snacks and beverages.

The Gulfstar will be fishing a Super Bowl Sunday Half Day trip on Feb 1. Departure time is 11AM and will return at 4PM, so you will be home before kickoff time. Reservations are required on all trips.

We will also offer Half Day trips Monday through Friday and a Special 24 Hour Snapper trip on Saturday, Feb 7. The cost is $265, this includes rod/reel, tackle, cut and live bait, meals, snacks and drinks. Get your reservation in ASAP. 727 938 5300

Capt. Jerry reported that this weekends 44 Hr Middle Grounds trip was a tough one. He said that Saturday morning showed some phenomenal mangos, red grouper and gags on the first drop; but once the front arrived the bite shut down.

Saturday night showed some nice size mangos, a few red grouper, some bee liners, and porgies but the gags were not biting at all.

Sunday morning brought a few more gag and red grouper, mangos and AJs.

The Gulfstar will fish a Half Day trip on Wednesday, January 28. The cost is $55 per person and only $25 for kids under 12. We are expecting Florida temps to return, so it should be a beautiful day on the Gulf.

We are also still taking reservations for Saturday, January 31 st long awaited 20 Hour Crabtree Squeaker. Do not worry about not being home in time for kickoff Sunday. We dont want to miss the Super Bowl, or Grouper-Bowl either. The Gulfstar will leave early Saturday morning at 4 AM and return by 11 PM. Make your reservations online or by calling our office at 727 938 5300.

The FISHINGUNITED.COM deep water charter left at noon on Friday, January 9 with 20 anxious fishermen. The Viking Star had a 21 hour steam before starting to fish between 95 and 110 fathom.

The Star had some pretty breezy conditions and a fast drift, but still had a good pick of queen snappers, yellow edge grouper, snowy grouper and tile fish. They then moved to 75 and 85 fathom with a 1 mile drift. They had an awesome pick a misty grouper, ball bats tiles, more snowys and yellow edge grouper, also yellow eye snapper. The bite was very good till sundown. They fished a wreck at night landing giant beeliners and jumbo amberjack.

After steaming to another area for AM bite, the group from FishingUnited.com had lots of big scamp in the morning but wound up with a slow day. Later that night, a special stop! Mutton, yellowtail, vermillion and mangrove snappers, big bar jacks, amberjacks, massive African pompano, gag grouper, red grouper, rainbow runner and a large assortment of other stuff.

The Gulfstar did it again, another weekend of FANTASTIC grouper fishing! Capt Jerry reported that he has not seen fishing this hot in a long time. Most anglers caught their limit and released many others. Lots of big AJs, vermillion snappers and great looking gags!

We are still taking reservations for the 44 Hour trip on Jan 16 and 23. There are still a few spots left on the 30 Hour Grouper Grab and the 20 Hour Crabtree Squeaker at the end of the month. The Florida office is open 7 days a week, get your reservations in ASAP! 727 938 5300

This week the Gulfstar will fish Half Day trips on Monday, January 5 and Wednesday, January 7. Get your reservations in ASAP. 727-938-5300

Happy New Year from the crew in Tarpon Springs! We have only 3 spaces left on this weekends 44 Hour Middle Grounds Trip. The last few grouper trips have been RED HOT, so we are going for it again this week. The Gulfstar will offer some Half Day trips next week on Jan 5 and 7. Get your reservations in ASAP.

Capt. Rich reports that yesterdays 16 Hour Extended Day trip provided LOTS and LOTS of rod bending grouper action! Some passengers caught their daily limit; Mike Bavis of St. Pete, FL was one of them. Scott Myers took the grouper and snapper pool. The Gulfstar ended up with only a few snapper, but nearly 50 keeper grouper. All in all, it was an awesome trip! The crew reported that along with great weather, a fun crowd made for a great trip.

Tomorrow, Monday, Dec 29, the Gulfstar will leave the dock at 9am sharp for a full 8 Hour Day trip. Walk ons are WELCOME! Rod and reel, frozen and live bait are free. But bring lunch and drinks. See you at Viking Landing!

Last Friday's 44 Hour Middle Grounds Trip was PHENOMINAL! See the pictures in the photo gallery...TONS OF GROUPER!

Exciting trip added to schedule!!!!!!!!

A 16 Hour Grouper North Grounds Special has been added. After the success of the last 16 hr trip a lot of passengers have been asking for another one so we added one. The Gulfstar will depart Saturday 12/06/2008 at 8am and return at midnight this will give us time for a sundown bite and some mangrove snapper fishing. Lunch and dinner, cut AND live bait and rod & reel are all included. RESERVE NOW!!

Below is the Tarpon Springs schedule for December. Please feel free to call the office with any questions.

December 2008

12/01/08 Half Day $ 55

12/03/08 Half Day $ 55

12/06/08 16 Hour Grouper Special $ 185

12/08/08 Half Day $ 55

12/10/08 Half Day $ 55

12/12/08 44 Hour Middle Grounds $ 480 (Gulfstar)

12/19/08 44 Hour Middle Grounds $ 425 (Viking Star)

12/19/08 14 Hour Night Trip $ 155

12/21/08 Half Day $ 55

12/22/08 Half Day $ 55

12/26/08 Half Day $ 55

12/27/08 16 Hour Extended Day $ 185

12/28/08 Half Day $ 55

12/29/08 8 Hour Day $ 85

November 2
Saturdays 16 hour Grouper trip ended up as a great day. The Gulfstar departed a few minutes early in some breezy and bumpy conditions. The first stop of the day was not very productive and did not see much action at all. Captain Rich pushed through the weather finally getting to the fishing zone. Once noon came around the weather took a turn with no wind and plenty of sunshine. The zone turned out lots of action with plenty of shorts and keepers. They had Flounder up to 5lbs, Kingfish up to 35lbs and a nice mix of Red and Gag Grouper. As evening approached fishing slowed dramatically. They had a few keeper reds, 5 more Gag Grouper and only 2 more Mangrove Snapper. All in all a great trip.

9/23/08
Last night, the group from Premier Beverage, Tampa, FL, returned from their 24 Hour private charter on the Gulfstar. Capt. Rich reported excellent fishing! The guys caught lots of big mangos and saw lots of grouper action. They had plenty of kingfish and amberjacks, also caught and released a lot of American red snapper.Capt. Rich sends a big thanks to Chris Nicolas, of Premier Beverage, for putting a great group of guys onboard. Hopefully we’ll see you all in Tarpon Springs again soon!

Tuesday, September 09, 2008
Capt. Rich has finally returned from Montauk, NY. After tuna fishing for a few weeks, he was anxious to get some grouper fishing done!
Since Hurricane Ike has been threatening the Gulf of Mexico, Capt. Rich decided to move the 44 Hour trip from Monday (9/8/8) to Sunday night. He explained to the group that they probably wouldn’t be headed all the way to the Middle Grounds in order to get in as much fishing time as possible. Everyone was fine with suggestion, most anglers wound up catching near their 2 day limit of snappers, average weight of 5 lbs but plenty topping out at 8 to 9 pounds. They were whacking the grouper, some reaching their limit of reds and gag. Jason Bradford landed a beautiful 25 lb gag grouper.Brandon Curcio flew in from Wyoming for the trip in order to fish with his brother Jason. Prior to fishing on the Viking Gulfstar, the largest fish Brandon had ever caught was a 4 lb trout. He caught lots of snapper and grouper much larger than anything else he’d landed before. Well done guys!

July 14, 2008
12 Hour Night Snapper
The weather was bumpy and uncomfortable but the Red Snapper were biting we caught our limit on 1 drop and picked a few other fish like king mackerel, gag grouper, lane and mangrove snapper and a few porgies. The sharks were there also around eating some tasty treats and they were cranked from the depths. We did get home late due to the sloppy conditions but with a box full of red snapper nobody seemed to mind.

July, 11 2008
44 hr Florida Middle Grounds
The 44 hr trip this weekend was very exciting. One of our regular passengers was celebrating his birthday with us. This would mean we could call Dean Old, crusty and things like for the whole weekend without him getting very far away from the heckling. The first drop of the trip gave us lots of mangrove snapper and some American red snapper also in the mix was some red grouper and 1 gag grouper and a bunch of king mackerel. During the day on Saturday we moved to deeper water and whacked the Giant amberjack and some more red snapper. The afternoon was a slow grind picking away at some porgies and more red grouper. Sat night the bite started right away allowing us to top off our snapper limit and making for a late birthday dinner of Rib eye steaks, Lobster tails and Stone crab claws and of course a cake what a feast. We could not top off the cake with the correct amount of candles because of the fire hazard of all those open flames The Grouper Bite on Sunday morning was very slow with only a few shorts coming over the rail. What a great weekend.

July 10, 2008
Jumbo Red Snapper Special
The jumbo Red snapper special on July 10 was a success with the passengers catching there limit of Red snappers on the first drop along with some large Gag Grouper and amberjack. The rest of the day we picked away at some more assorted snappers like Yellowtail, Mutton, Vermillion and Mangrove. On the grouper scene we managed a few nice Red Grouper and a handful of Scamp Grouper.

Last weekend Capt Rich arrived home with nothing but good reports. It started off with a nice Mangro Snapper bite early Saturday morning. The first stop after sun-up produced a 29.5 lb grouper caught by Jimmy Gallagher and a good mess of large American Red Snapper. The rest of the day we caught a mixture of large red snapper and big Red and Gag Grouper. The Saturday evening sundown bite was lock and load with red snapper, Mangro snapper, amberjack, and grouper. After sundown we topped off our Mango snapper limit by midnight, we made a long move looking for some am gag grouper action. The move produced about a dozen and a half good sized gag groupers.
Excellent fishing and good weather, the time is now, fish are biting…Book Now!

July has a good variety of trips happening, don’t wait to make reservations! Give us a call at 888-FL TRIPS
Capt. Rich has added two trips…they are highlighted below. July has a good variety of trips happening! DO NOT wait to make reservations! Give us a call at 888-FL TRIPS or 727-938-5300

July 4 44 Hr Middle Grounds

July 9 Half Day *NEW*

July 10 JUMBO Red Snapper Trip *NEW*

July 11 44 Hr Middle Grounds

July 14 12 Hour Night Snapper

July 16 Half Day

July 18 *Special* 44 Hour Cubera Hunt

July 20 4 Day Pelagic Trip

July 25 44 Hr Middle Grounds

July 30 Half Day

July 31 Half Day

June 8th- 4 Day Pelagic Trip

The much anticipated 4 day pelagic / deepwater trip departed about 30 minutes early, as everybody stowed there gear and started familiarizing themselves with there new home for the next 4 days. As we were motoring down the channel I checked and rechecked all the gauges, navigation lights, instruments and the satellite shots of the offshore eddys and currents feeling pretty good about an area I plotted out the course, 155 nm WSW. I was real happy with that distance because on the last 4-day trip we had to steam over 200 miles to find the water break that I felt good about. With Fuel at $4.75 per gallon this year distance is a big factor whether we like it or not it. Once we cleared the last channel marker and were in open water I turned the Gulf star on course on started thinking about some stops along the way to break up the ride. The words RED SNAPPER jumped into my mind, yeah let us chase some red snapper for an hour or so. I asked second Captain George to go talk to the Passengers to see if they wanted to do the same the vote came back instantly YEAH! After altering course a bit, I looked back to the cockpit and saw the anglers anxiously rigging for Red Snapper. Five hours later I eased the throttles back and started searching the area for those tasty Red Snapper. As we circled around one more time a called over the PA system get ready guys where going to make a drift here. It was not long before the words FISH ON were being muttered. The fishing was not fast and furious but steady we only had to make two drifts to catch a bunch of Red Snapper, two Mangrove and two Lane Snapper. Knowing that we still have a lot of miles to cover before the morning sun would rise we agreed it was time to move on and get offshore.

Getting close, I observed the sea surface temp gauge fluttering back and fourth indicating the breaks were getting closer. The Sun was just starting to rise over the horizon and it was lines out. The First fish was a real nice Wahoo about 50 lbs and not too long after was a couple Dorado (dolphin fish) or as PGF says mi-mi’s. Wow great start right? Well it went down hill in a hurry because we had only a couple of mystery bites for the rest of the day. The water just flattened out and the breaks were gone. After searching all day we gave up, switched gears and tried some deep dropping for Grouper and Snapper that too was slow. We managed a few small to medium sized grouper but nothing we had anticipated. With the Sun getting low we started thinking SWORDFISH maybe we can change our luck with some awesome swords. We steamed Two hours after sun down while every body had dinner, Marking bait and a Thermo-cline on the bottom machine we throttled back, started chumming put the colored sword lights in the water and started fishing. Nothing, Nothing, Nothing all night long.

The morning came with bruised egos and a new hope of mayhem on deck as we started trolling again. The water moved and it moved fast, we were in search mode looking for the temp break. My gut feeling was telling me to go north but the satellite shot was telling me west. After about an hour of talking to myself, we were trolling northwest, scanning the horizon through binoculars searching for weeds, trash, and a convergence zone anything that might hold fish. After 60 miles finally some surface action a few weeds and small temp changes we get a bite a barracuda, we see a dorsal fin up ahead, a Sailfish then another, no bites…. We drilled the area for 2 hours, this is turning into a captains nightmare, Now fed up with my split personality’s compromise I turned Northeast and went with my original gut feeling asking myself what was I thinking when I decided to go north west, at this point I felt lost with no plan to find my way. I know, stop drinking so much coffee and get a nap and sleep on it. Captain George has the helm now he mutters something and starts searching through his gear digging around he pokes himself a few times, hooks, knives, bladder deflators. “I Got 'em” There his ultra bionic polyball seeing, trash spotting, weed whacking green Costa Del Mar prescription sunglasses. “There’s no Hidin' now fishes”. That’s not really what he said but I’m trying to keep it clean here, you know for the kids. After about two hrs the engines slow down and wake up to a large Mi-MI dancing on the surface. We both agree that we need to drill it out here. Its getting late in the afternoon and we have life. After trolling some more we whack a few more Mimi’s and see Tuna all over. Looking back at the spread the long shotgun rod with a 14-inch Marlin Lure gets throttled by a large Blue Marlin. Fish on everybody screams as the 50 wide two speed reel is almost on fire. The lines are cleared and the deck was quickly made ready for the battle and it was clear by now this monster had no intention of meeting us and getting up close and personal. The battle did not last long, the Marlin won the battle. The mainline had parted in the middle of the line. What an upset after two very slow days of trolling the release of that marlin would have bounced everybody back in the zone. We trolled around for sundown watching tunas jumping and frolicking but no bites.

After dark we set up for the Swordfish drifts, we deployed the chum, sword lights and baits. Now we wait, and eat dinner, rib-eye steaks, grilled veggies and homemade Cole slaw what a feast. The first bite came late around 1 am, It was a keeper sword not a giant but a keeper. About an hour later three bites came in an instant causing chaos on deck these fish charged the boat and the tangles we wicked. We cleared the tangle ASAP but the fish were angry and they would not wait for anything, two gone and 1 boated. We straighten everything out and get the baits back in the water and wait only for about 30 minuets for another bite. This fish came in real easy with little commotion and fell victim to the gaff quickly. The last bite of the night was around 4 am which was an Oil fish around 35 lbs.

After sunrise we started trolling, today the plan was to troll around this area and up to the northeast towards a wreck in 950 ft of water and do some deep dropping. I don’t recall if we caught anything trolling up to the wreck that morning but when I circled over the wreck the bottom machine almost exploded with red marks all over and around the wreck. We anxiously cleared all the trolling rods and deployed the deep drop electric rods and rigged them up with 3 lb sinkers and large circle hooks baited with whole squid and a half of mackerel. We motored back up to the spot and dropped down; it’s a long way down like almost 2 minuets, which seems like an hour when you are excited. The baits did not sit very long on the bottom before I watched the rods start to bend over and the started hearing the guys screaming “fish on”. The first fish up was a nice snowy Grouper about 28 lbs then another snowy about 20 lbs then on the third rod we watch the rod stop bouncing and come up with an empty hook. The fish became UN buttoned for some reason. We made a bunch more passes during the morning and had consistent fishing on almost every pass catching Snowy and/or yellow-edge grouper. There were also Barrel fish coming up; these fish fight all the way up shaking their head violently and bending the rod tip almost to the water. Then I hear “hey look at that weed line” I was so focused on what was 950 ft down that I was not looking 300 ft away on the horizon. I let the boat drift in to the weed line and soon we heard “mahi on” now this is where it get pretty awesome the mahi’s are almost jumping in the boat and I see the deep drop rods bent over with fish 2 Barrel fish 1 large snowy and a bunch of mahi come victim to the gaff all in a matter of seconds. We worked that weed line for a while catching a bunch more mahi and a couple of barracuda. The rest of the day was a fish here and there but nothing compared to the morning. It was a long day because everybody was looking forward to some more sword fishing that night.

The first Sword came up at 11:30 pm it was about 100lbs or so and the second bite was not long after in fact we had three bites quickly but we couldn’t put the hook into the fish. The last sword of the trip was around 3am this one was just keeper size. The next morning we started trolling towards home and boxed up some more mahi and 1 more Wahoo. At 3 pm I called out lines up guys and pointed the Gulfstar towards home.

What an awesome 4 days, lows and highs, little fish and big, calm weather, great company and excellent food what more could we ask for!!

06/16/2008 12 hour all Night Fishing
Captain Jerry Took the Gulf Star to the night fishing grounds with a crowd of anxious anglers who had visions of snapper bliss. The bite was a steady pick of Mangrove Snappers, Key West Grunts and some keeper Gag Grouper. They also released many undersized Grouper. The Kids on this trip definitely dominated the snappers. The next 12 Hour all night trip is scheduled for July 14 at 6 pm.

06/16/2008 8hr all day Micanopy Masonic Lodge charter
These folks are champs they fished in some pretty bumpy weather, with thunder storms moving through the Gulf all day they still managed to catch a box of fish like Yellowtail, Mangrove and Hog Snapper, Key West Grunts and a real fat red Grouper. They also released hundreds of undersized red and gag Grouper. What a fun bunch of fishermen and women.
06/13/2008 44 Hour Florida Middle grounds
With perfect weather the passengers of the Gulfstar FILLED the boxes with Huge Mangrove, Massive Yellowtail and Giant Red Snapper mixed in were other fish like a Mutton Snapper a Rainbow runner, Black-fin tuna Red and Gag Grouper. The night fishing was great, almost easy but the Day fishing took perseverance. They Guys that toughed it out had loads of fish. Great trip check our photo Gallery for pics.

Capt. Rich and the crew of the Gulfstar returned Thursday night from quite a marathon of trips & the fun started again last night with our regularly scheduled 44 Hour Middle Grounds trip (SOLD OUT!). This week will be a busy one too, considering they’ll return Sunday evening from the Middle Grounds and be ready to go Monday morning with a special day charter, followed by the 12 Hour Night Snapper trip at 6pm and another 24 Hour Red Snapper special departing Tuesday night at 8pm.

24 Hour American Red Snapper Opener The Gulfstar departed at 8pm with great weather. They saw some good night action with American Reds, Gags, Scamps, Porgies and Mangos. Sunday gave them no current and a tough grind picking away at Red Grouper and American Reds all day. Sunday afternoon had a couple good hits of American Reds putting them five fish away from their bag limit. GREAT TRIP!

44 Hour Middle Grounds Private Charter Pool Works Company had nice ride out to the grounds and started the trip early Saturday morning with monster mango snappers and porgies. At daybreak it was still on until noon with a constant bite of gags, many were undersized and released, but they were still able to stuff the two fish boxes full of keepers. They moved even further offshore where they picked a few big red grouper and some large red snappers. This was the 2^nd Annual trip with Pool Works…another one well done!

May 30th

12 Hour Night Snapper trip departed at 6pm with fair weather. They started with some decent action. The SE wind picked up and the current was running into the wind making for a sloppy second half of the trip. It was a slow night with a couple of dozen snapper, lots of grunts and undersized grouper released.

Friday May 16th

The Viking Superstar was out on a 44 hour trip again this weekend, and fishing was great! Our first drop we made at 3:30am was a good one, with plenty of mangos coming over the rails! We also had some Red groupers and porgies as well. We caught well through the first couple of hours until the sun came up. As it did, we set up for some grouper, and were rewarded with some big Gags and Red Groupers. After that, however, the day bite slowed down. We made many moves, and picked away at snappers and groupers, but it was just a pick. We also had a couple of AJs during the day. As Saturday night progressed, everything started eating again. We picked away all night at plenty of mangos, some gags, some Red Groupers, scamps, porgies king mackerel, and bee liners. When the Sun came up on Sunday, we made a drop for groupers, and caught a couple more gags and Red Groupers. After that, we headed to a wreck and caught some nice AJs! Most of the anglers on the boat had their snapper limits, as well as Red Grouper limits! Wally Sobek of Bradenton, FL, true to form, took the Grouper pool with a hefty 27 pound gag! Tim Bible of Orlando, FL took the snapper pool with a 7.8 lb mango. Also, Bob Larson of St. Petersburg, FL took the AJ pool with a 30 pounder. We have one more trip this coming weekend before the Viking Superstar heads back to NY for the season, so come join in on the fun!

Also, The Gulfstar was also out on a 44 hour charter with Northwest this weekend and Capt. Rich reports similar results at the Middle Grounds. The Snapper fishing at night was fantastic, with all types of species coming over the rails including mangos, beeliners, red and gag groupers, scamps, king mackerel, vermillion snappers, porgies, and everything else. The day bite on Saturday was a little slow, but, again the night bite heated up. With plenty of fish on board by late Sat night, Capt. Rich decided to hit some inshore spots on Sunday for grouper, and the charter group was glad he did!! The gag bite was on fire! The first spot he hit inshore was red hot, with lots of keepers coming over the rails, and some above 20 pounds! After that spot, he hit a couple more, including one wreck, and each spot produced plenty more gag and Red Groupers. The wreck also produced some AJs as well. They were having such a great time bailing groupers, that Capt Rich stayed out 2 extra hours to completely fill the boxes! Thanks again to Northwest for putting together another phenominal trip with us!

Friday May 9th

The Viking Superstar returned Sunday from a fantastic trip to the Middle Grounds. Capt. Carl reports that fishing started off good at the very first drop with many mangos coming over the rails. They bit well into the day as well! As the sun was coming up on Saturday, we started seeing some nice gags, Red GRoupers, and AJs turn on. We were steadily picking all sorts of fish until around noon, when things died down. At that point, we took a 9 mile ride to look around and when we stopped, we were not dissappointed! First, the American Red Snappers were biting every hook. They were all released unharmed. As soon as they were done, we caught a few mangos, but the tide changed so we swung off the peice a little bit. We reanchored on it, and the big gags started chewing! Large firetrucks as well as VIKING size gags were coming up steadily. It was a good bite, and we broke off some big ones as well. Once they shut down, small AJs stareted to bite, then lots of vermillion snappers! Once we left there, we went to another spot for the sundown bite, and, again, large gags and red groupers started coming up. As it got darker, the mangos were biting, and they were very much of quality size. All night on Saturday into Sunday morning, fishing was on, with plenty of mangos, vermillion, more gags, red groupers, some scamps, and large porgies! Sunday morning we stopped at a small break, and MORE gag groupers and red groupers came up! Fishing was steady the whole trip, and with a light crowd, we were very close to our limits on everything!. Shawn Heverin of JAcksonville, FL took the Grouper pool with a beauty 29 pound gag! Mark Heverin, also of Jacksonville, FL took the AJ pool with a 28 pounder. Also, Gene Goodin of Council Bluff, IL took the snapper pool with a LARGE 9.8 pound mango!

Wednesday May 7th

The Viking Superstar returned yesterday from the Southeastern Tackle Liquidators charter with a load of fish! On Sunday, before the boat left, Mookie had the BBQ going and fed everyone who was on the trip some of his famous Chicken, Steak, Baked Beans, and potato salad. Thanks Mookie! We left the dock at 8pm and headed out to the grounds. We arrived at 3:00am and started fishing. The New Moon tide was screaming, and the first couple of drops produced just a few mangos and groupers. At 5:00am, we made a stop and the fishing really heated up! Many mangos were flying over the rails, along with more groupers! As the sun came up, the grouper bite really started to turn on, and gags as well as red grouper, AND mangos. All day long we picked grouper and snappers. The mates were very busy with the gaffs! That night, we picked away also on the snappers, with many limits becoming full! The next morning we stopped on a wreck and along with many big fish bites, as well as a ton of mangos! We made our last stop especially for Scooter, who was grouper-less, and on the last stop he redeemed himself with a fat 25 pound Red Grouper! Thanks to everyone for another great trip. Thanks to Vince and Gary for putting it together. We look forward to the next one!

Friday May 2nd

The Viking Superstar returned today from another fantastic trip to the famous Florida Middle Grounds! Captain Carl reports that things started off slow. We were picking away at mangos and red groupers, but for the first couple hours of the trip, we had to fight the porpoises for every fish! a pod of 12 of them were terrorizing us, so, we took a 10 mile ride at 18 knots and managed to lose them. Once we did, we found some nice gag groupers, red groupers, scamp groupers, mangrove snappers, and porgies that were biting! We picked away steadily all day, with gags to 28 pounds coming over the rail! Once the sun set, the mangos started biting again, well, as well as more gags and red groupers all through the night. Many anglers had their snapper limits. Then on Sunday when the sun came up, we tried a few more spots and got a few more grouper. Our last stop was a wreck, and we caught a few Amberjacks on it. We saw them swimming on the surface, but they werent too interested in eating. Daniel Cheek of Naples, FL took the snapper pool with a beauty 7.5 pound mango. Wally Sobek of Bradenton, FL took the Amberjack pool with a nice 24 pounder. The grouper pool was split in half, with two equal weighing fish... one a Red Grouper caught by John Guskey of Lakeland, FL...and the other a gag grouper caught by Dave Sobek of Chicago, IL. Both fish weighed in at 26 pounds! Good Job Guys!

We are just about to head out with the SouthEastern Tackle Liquidators group on the Viking Superstar. We will be back on Tuesday afternoon, so stay posted for another report!

Friday April 25th

The Viking Superstar returned from a 44 hr trip today and Capt Carl reports that it was another success! We were welcomed with beautiful weather and biting mangos! They bit well the first night, along with some gag grouper and red grouper. As day broke, we saw some more gag and red groupers, but only for a little while. After that, it seemed the only fish that wanted to bite were Porgies, and they bit well!! Triple headers were flying over the rails! We worked our way to another area, picking more porgies, red grouper, gag grouper, some big AJs, mangos, vermillions and scamps. Fishing Saturday night continued to produce well for us. We ended Sunday morning with another shot of gag and Big Red groupers. It was definaltey a steady pick the entire trip, with many happy fishermen! The Davis group out of Ohio joined us again and they had a blast! Charlie West (at it again) took both the grouper pool (with a 27 lb gag) and the AJ pool with a 48 pounder! Greg Richardson, from Columbus, Ohio showed his boys how its done with the winning snapper at 8 lbs! Thanks to everyone for a fun trip and we look forward to seeing everyone again!

Thursday April 24th

Captain Jerry too the Gulfstar out on a 16 hour on Thursday and fishing was great! We had a light load of people, and ended up with 27 keeper gags up to 19 lbs! There were many quality fish in the mix, with an average of 14 lbs a keeper! There was also a couple mangos in the mix to 4 lbs, and lots of grunts and seabass! Capt. George says the weather was fantastic as well! Dave from NY was out with his dad as well as his son, and they had a blast! Check the picture section!

Friday April 18th
The Viking Superstar was out Friday night on a 24 hour special trip, and returned Saturday night. Fishing was fantastic! We started fishing at 1:00am and the mangos were on fire! All through the dark of the night, we caught mangos, Red Groupers, a couple gag Groupers, porgies, scamp grouper, and vermillion snappers! As the sun came up, we caught more grouper, some Amberjacks, and mangos. Around 8:00am, the tide changed and ran hard...so the bite slowed down drastically. We bounced around trying numerous spots, and picked some fish, but it was tough until around 1:00pm, when they started biting well again! Our last drop produced more of everything, including some big AJs! Many people had their 2 DAY bag limit of snappers, all the first night! Stainley Tainter of MArco Island, FL took two of the pools, with a 38 lb AJ, and a 18 lb GAG. John Miller from upstate, NY took the snapper pool with a 7 lb mango. Also, Capt. George Lontakis came out fishing with us, and he had a 19 lb gag, and a 8 and a half pound mango!


Today, we went out on an 8 hr trip and along with great weather, we saw great fishing! Our first two drops we caught keeper gags, loads of shorts, and tons of grunts! After that, we didnt see any more keeper grouper, but loads of shorts and tons and tons of grunts, along with some big seabass! The biggest grouper today was a 12 pounder!

Friday April 11th

The Viking Superstar returned from another 44hr trip last night with some great fish hanging. Captain Carl reports that "We started fishing at 2:00am Saturday and the first drop produced a bunch of nice vermillion snappers along with a few mangos. Our second drop was much better with the mango snappers coming in, along with a few gag grouper and Red Groupers. We picked away into the daybreak, then moved to another spot where right off the bat, we caught a nice gag, and a nice big Firetruck red Grouper. Then, the AJs started to bite! We could see them just a few feet under the surface, and jigs worked very well! Grayson from BassPro in Orlando was using his butterfly jigs and hooked up just about every cast! Once they finally slowed up, we made a move. Throughout the morning, we bounced around, just catching a few here and there, mainly Big Red Groupers. We decided to head off into the deeper water looking for the gags, but didn't find much at all. At one wreck, the grouper didn't bite, but we had a strong bit of Vermillion snappers that all ranged from 3-5lbs!! Bill and Charlie were in heaven! After not much grouper action off in the deep, we headed back to the grounds and started picking away again at the big red groupers and scamp groupers. That night, the snapper fishing was great, with many quality size Mangos coming in, along with all the porgies you wanted. We also picked a couple nice kingfish to 35 lbs, more vermillion snappers, Red groupers, Scamps, and a couple gags, even with the wind gusting. Those who braved the cold wind were very well rewarded. Sunday morning, we made a couple drops and caught some more Gag Groupers, Red Groupers, and AJs. Dennis Williams of Orlando, who made some incredible fresh ceviche for lunch, took the Grouper pool with a 24lb Gag. Robert Brown took the snapper pool with a beauty 8.7lb mango. Also, Mike Greenwood, also from BassPro in Orlando, took the AJ pool with a 28 pounder! Everyone who won the pools were from Orlando, FL!! Thanks to everyone once again for a great fun trip!

Friday April 4th

The Viking Superstar returned from a 44 hr trip today. Capt. Carl reports that fishing was much tougher than it has been the previous weeks. We had a new moon, with strong currents, which made things difficult. We also had to contest againt rain, wind, fish-stealing porpoises, and sharks! The first night produced some mangrove snappers, as well as red groupers and vermillion snappers. During the day, we hunted around for more grouper, and did catch some Gags, as well as Reds, but it was a long day. We made a lot of moves and worked hard to put something together, and we did end up with some fish. For sundown, we hit a wreck, and were rewarded with more gag groupers, as well as mangos, lane snappers, bar jacks, vermillion snappers, and scamp groupers. That night, we worked hard again, and were able to catch some mangrove snappers, Big Red Groupers, more vermillion snappers, and plenty of porgies. For the next morning on Sunday, we stopped at one spot and caught some Ajs. After that, we tried another wreck, but did not get much action. Roger Homser of Orwell, OH took the grouper pool with a 24 lb Red Grouper. Stainley Tainter took the largest AJ with a 27 pounder. Jimmy Kimm from NY took the snapper pool with a nice 8 lb mango! Sorry we don’t have any pictures, but it was pouring rain when we got back to the dock!

Monday March 31

The Viking Superstar went out on an 8 hr trip today. The weather was just fine, and we caught some fish. We had a nice pick of Groupers, both gag and red, with some nice keepers in the mix. We also caught some Key West Grunts and Black Seabass. John Bleakney, of Morrisville NJtook the pool with a nice 9 pound gag. What a lucky streak! The last time John was fishing was up in Montauk on the Viking Starship for cod just a couple weeks ago, and he won that pool too! Congrats John!


Saturday March 29

The Viking Superstar returned today from a 44 hr. Middle Grounds trip and according to Capt. Carl, fishing was once again fantastic! We started fishing around 3:00am and things started off slow. Just a handful of mangos wanted to bite, so, we moved to a different area. When the sunstarted to rise, we started catching some gag and red grouper, along with tons of porgies. The grouper action certainly wasn’t as hot as last weekend, so we did work around quite a bit, with each stop producing a few more grouper, snapper, and porgies. As the day went on, the bite started getting better and better, and soon coolers were filling faster and faster! For sundown, we stopped on a ledge which showed some very large blobs on the botom machine. As soon as we anchored up, BOOM! Large Ajs to 50 pounds were landed. After they quit, the mango fishing was on fire! We caught very good for a solid 2 hours. At this point, Scott Meyers was reeling in another AJ, and a large shark followed him up and ate his jack! This kind of shut the bite off, so we moved around and fishing was great all night long. Plenty of nice mangos and vermillion snappers were caught all night, along with porgies, Ajs, and groupers. The next morning saw some more LARGE Firetruck red Groupers landed, as well as a few more gags. All in all, fishing was great, as we filled our boxes yet again. The weather was absolutely perfect the whole trip. Charlie West took 2 pool! He had the large Amberjack, weighing in at 50 lbs, and he also had the large snapper with a 8 lb mango. Scott Meyers took the Grouper pool with a 22 lb gag! We also found American Red Snappers at almost every stop, and they were LARGE! They were al released unharmed. Thanks to everyone for coming with us, and we look forward to seeing you all again

Friday, March 28

Yesterdays 16 hr trip on the Viking Superstar turned out to be a good one. The weather couldn’t be better! Capt. Carl reports that…our first stop was very lively, according to the bottom machine. We anchored up, but they werent biting. We only ended up with a few gags and a red grouper. We sat for a while, hoping for them to turn on, but they never did, so we checked out another spot that produced similar results. Capt. Carl decided to take a gamble and a 15 mile steam to another area. It paid off! The gag groupers were coming up all up and down the boat! We also had some scamp groupers, Red Groupers, Amberjacks, mangrove snappers, pink porgies, American Red Snappers to 15 lbs (released unharmed), and grunts! It was on fire for 2 solid hours, and everything worked…live bait, dead bait, and jigs! When the bite finally died down, we went to a wreck which produced a few more gags and red groupers. We then went to one more wreck which produced a good amount of more gags. Anthony Palisi ended up with the big fish… a gag weighing in at 26 lbs! Bobby, 'the Baiter' Ehman caught his limit of grouper to 22 lbs, along with some mangos, and Ricky Gordon took home his grouper limit as well.

The Gulfstar was out on an 8hr charter, and they saw great fishing as well. Capt. Rich reports similar results, with the bite a bit slow in the morning, but, once the tide was right, they made a drop that produced NON-STOP action, with keeper gags flying in and all around the boat! John Debock, true to form, easily had his gag limit. He also had the biggest fish, which he gave away, which weighed in at 22 lbs! You are the MAN JOHN! Fishing has been red hot lately! Come join in on the hot action!!

Sunday, March 23, 2008

WOW. WHAT A TRIP!! This weekend's action on the Viking Superstar was AMAZING! We started fishing at 2:30 Saturday morning, and the action was ok. The first drop saw some mangos, vermillion snappers, and Red Groupers. The next one produced more of the same, along with some gag groupers. After one more stop catching a few mangos, we headed to the grouper grounds for sun-up, and they were hungry! Each stop produced more than a handful of nice gags, along with big Red Groupers and mangos. They did not stop biting until around 3:00pm. After bouncing around a little and catching a few here and there, we stopped offshore a bit, and were welcomed by some bigger gags!! We stayed there until the sun went down, catching gag groupers, vermillion snappers, mangos, and lane snappers. We headed back to the snapper grounds after that, and the mangos were biting!!! Every stop all night long saw plenty of mango action, AND GROUPER ACTION!! The gags were even biting all through the night! Since most people were using lighter snapper tackle, we lost quite a few, but still boated a couple handfuls of gags, along with plenty of mangos and red groupers. We made one more morning stop on a wreck and saw some Ajs, which eluded us again this weekend, and saw quite a few, but most were short. With tired anglers and full boxes, we headed home. Stainley Tainter of Marco Island, FL took the Grouper pool with what WAS an estimated 34 lb gag, but actually had a huge bite taken out of it by a shark on the way up! It still tipped the scales at 29 lbs. There were quite a few close to it too. We had over 15 gags weighing in over 20 lbs!!! Tony Muia of Brooklyn, NY took the snapper pool with a 9 lb mango (and there were lots of close ones there too!!). Tony Deluca of Jacksonville, Fltook the AJ pool with a 20 pounder. Another notable mention was Charlie West, who had his limit of both Grouper and snapper, and tons of bee-liners! We had quite a few guys who had their limits on grouper and snapper, as this was a slammer trip. Thanks to all who joined us, and we look forward to seeing you again!
--Captain Carl

Saturday, March 22, 2008. 1.00pm

Despite the rainy weather, Capt Rich has managed to put together a great Half Day trip so far! He just called in from the boat and reported that along with the grunts and sea bass they have 3 keeper grouper on the Gulfstar. He also spoke with Capt. Carl, aboard the Superstar fishing somewhere in the Middle Grounds. Capt. Carl reports that they have a good mess of grouper and snapper on board already. The 44 Hour Middle Grounds report will be up tomorrow afternoon as well as pictures! Stay tuned!

Friday March 15th

MIDDLE GROUNDS GROUPER OPENER** The Viking Superstar returned today with grouper hanging all down the side of the boat! Capt. Carl reported. With a loaded boat of eager fishermen aboard, we headed out Friday night at 8:00pm and started fishing at 3:00am. The first couple of spots produced a handful of Red Groupers, some mangrove snappers, and scamps. As daybreak came, the gags started biting! We had numerous stops in the first couple of hours with gags and large red groupers flying over the rails. A little after noon, the bite finally slowed down, so we bounced around catching some porgies, mangos, and scamps. For sundown, we headed over to a wreck and it was LOCK AND LOAD!! Large gags and some Red Groupers, (including the pool winner) were landed. Also, we raised a Goliath grouper as well. We hung out there until after dark and picked up a few more mangos, lane snappers, and vermillion snappers. After that, we headed back to the Grounds, were the snapper fishing started off slow, then got better and better, however, they did not cooperate as well as they normally do. Whenever they started biting good, the porpoises would come and steal them!! The next morning, we caught a few more gag and red groupers, as well as Jacks. **On a side note, we caught and released American Red Snappers at EVERY single stop we made!** Marty Grasso of Spring Hill, FL was the lucky pool winner with a 24 lb RED grouper (he also had 6 gags, another Red Grouper, and a full stringer of mangos). Dan Baxter of Davenport, FL took the snapper pool with a FAT 8.8 pound mango, and Tim Verh took the AJ pool with a 25 pound AJ he jigged off a wreck.

44hr Deepwater Grouper

This past weekend aboard the Gulfstar we fished the deep dark depths of the Gulf of Mexico with great company, good weather and fantastic success. Early Saturday morning we stopped in 200ft and landed some very nice Mangrove snappers with tiny ones mixed in, go figure 12 inch mangroves in 200ft. We also released 5 Gag Grouper to about 15 lbs and a couple American red snapper.
Saturday Sun up with the Gulfstar hovering 490 plus ft over some very nice bottom with fish all over, we started our day of deep dropping. The fish cooperated well all day with Yellow edge, Scamp, hind, coneys, tilefish, porgies, Vermillion and gag grouper in the mix. All gag grouper and red snapper were released and all swam away thats right even the fish caught deep swam away with vigor.

Saturday night we stayed in the deep and tried some night deep dropping, the Grouper and Snapper did not play with us but the Sharks did, black tip, spinner, and hammerhead even a Black-fin Tuna.

2AM Sunday we steamed inshore and went wreck hopping on the way home we had plenty of action of red grouper and red snapper all were released.
Another Great Deep Drop trip completed and we cant wait for the next one. BOOK NOW!!!!!! 2008 SCHEDULES

CAPT RICH
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CHECK OUT THE NEW SCHEDULE !!!!!! BOOK YOUR TRIP NOW !!!!!!!!!!! 2008 SCHEDULES

Vikings of Tarpon Springs were nominated for the business of the year award by the Tarpon Springs Chamber of Commerce!

It's official! The American Red Snapper season will now open on June 1, 2008; therfore Capt. Rich has changed up the May & June schedule a little bit. Below is a list of trips he has added to the Gulfstar schedule. All 24 Hour trips will include bait, tackle and coffee. As usual, reservations are a MUST, so give us a call to get your name added to the list! 727-938-5300

This past weekend aboard the Gulfstar we fished the deep dark depths of the Gulf of Mexico with great company, good weather and fantastic success. Early Saturday morning we stopped in 200ft and landed some very nice Mangrove snappers with tiny ones mixed in, go figure 12 inch mangroves in 200ft. We also released 5 Gag Grouper to about 15 lbs and a couple American red snapper.

Saturday Sun up with the Gulfstar hovering 490 plus ft over some very nice bottom with fish all over, we started our day of deep dropping. The fish cooperated well all day with Yellow edge, Scamp, hind, coneys, tilefish, porgies, Vermillion and gag grouper in the mix. All gag grouper and red snapper were released and all swam away that’s right even the fish caught deep swam away with vigor.

Saturday night we stayed in the deep and tried some night deep dropping, the Grouper and Snapper did not play with us but the Sharks did, black tip, spinner, and hammerhead even a Black-fin Tuna. 2AM Sunday we steamed inshore and went wreck hopping on the way home we had plenty of action of red grouper and red snapper all were released. Another Great Deep Drop trip completed and we cant wait for the next one. BOOK NOW!!!!!! CAPT RICH

The Gulf Grouper Closure has everybody in a funk, Dr. Roy Crabtree and his Goons are putting the squeeze on the recreations fisherman and women from Feb 15 to Mar 15 2008 with even more closures proposed on the way. The Viking Fleet will not stand down! We went Grouper catching this past weekend and came home with plenty of Grouper in the box. The closure is on 3 of the many different Groupers available to catch. All we had to do was change our tactics and our fishing locations.

Friday night, Feb 15, the Gulfstar departed Viking Landing at 8pm and steamed all night out to the abyss of the Gulf. The men and women aboard started grouper catching by 730 AM on Sat. The fishing was very steady with various Groupers like Yellow Edge, Snowy, Speckled Hind, Scamp and Yellow Mouth, ALL GROUPER THAT CAN BE CAUGHT, along with really big Vermillion snapper and Yellow Eye snapper. The Red Porgies were ravenous with many of them topping the 5 lb mark. Also a lot of nice gray tilefish in the mix. We have more specialty trips like this one scheduled, call the office or check the website for details. Www.vikingfleet.com.

The weather was awesome on Sat and the fishing really could not have gotten any better. The fish were biting almost immediately for most of the day. Everybody onboard caught a fish that was a 1st for them, making for a lot of very excited anglers. Jan from Michigan booked the trip last minute, just a few weeks after learning she has stage 1 lung cancer. Jan is an avid fisherwoman who has traveled and fished many of the popular fishing locales in America. Before she started the very grueling fight against her illness, Janice wanted to catch a Gulf Grouper and enjoy it with her family that lives in Florida. She was very upset when she learned that Grouper was closed. After we told her about the other Grouper species she could catch, it seemed that she felt much better. I did not realize how she must have felt about this BS grouper closure and her situation, but by Sat afternoon after getting to know her much better, I became enraged thinking about how careless the NMFS and Dr. Roy Crabtree are regarding the people who participate in the grouper fishery; whether it be for spiritual reasons or any other reason that helps them get through life. Jan had to go on a trip that took her very far offshore to accomplish her goal, when it could have been done on an 8 hour day trip.

Viking Fleet wishes Jan the best of luck and a speedy recovery! Advice for all of us, DO NOT let Dr. Crabtree and his Goon Squad win with their voodoo math calculations. Stand up and be counted!

The Viking Superstar was out on a 16 hr trip yesterday. The weather was COLD, and a bit ugly in the morning, but it got nicer and nicer throughout the day. The first stop produced a bunch of gag grouper, as well as a few Amberjacks. After picking away for a while, we slid over to another spot close to that one, and picked a few more gags. Matter of fact, Ricky Gordon already had his grouper lmit, with gags to 12 lbs, and a keeper AJ. We tried another spot after that, and caught more gags, and some scamps. After that, the bite died off, and we bounced a round and didn’t catch much. We tried a wreck, but only short Ajs came up. Then we tried another and caught more gags. After that, our last stop produced a few more gags and some mangos. Laslo Kovacs caught 3 gags to 18 lbs, but was not in the pool. Norm Anderson of Inverness, FL took the pool money with a 16 lb gag!

Monday, Feb. 11, 2008

The Viking Superstar went out on a half day trip today. The weather was nice, and fishing was good. We had a lot of nice sized grunts, as well as short groupers. Craig Neal of Tarpon Springs, FL took a day off of work from Captain Jacks restaurant and won the pool with a nice grunt! Congrats.

Sunday, Feb. 10, 2008

The Viking Superstar just got back from a 44 hr trip. Fishing was tough, according to Capt. Carl. We started off snapper fishing at 2:30am and had a very strong current, making feeling the bites difficult. We caught some mangos, scamps, Red Groupers, and kingfish and we bounced around from spot to spot producing just a few here and a few there. When the sun came up, we tried a spot and caught some gag grouper and a couple Amberjacks. After that, things remained slow during the day. We made a lot of moves, and caught few more gag, red, and scamp groupers, as well as porgies. The grounds were tough, so we tried some deeper water spots, from 125 to 165ft. And caught just a few more gags, red groupers, porgies, and American Red Snappers (all released unharmed). We tried a wreck at sundown, and had many break-offs, due to light tackle and Goliath Groupers. One was landed, and estimated to be @ 130lbs. After the sun went down, we did catch some mangos, and lane snappers at the wreck. After that, we went back to the grounds, and each spot we tried we caught some mangos and Red groupers, but would only pick for a little while, then move on and find the same results. Then a cold front came through and the weather took a turn for the worse, making things even more difficult. It was a tough trip, but everyone still went home with some fish. James Best from Grand Rapids, MI took the Grouper pool with a 21 lb gag. Chris Yeates of Brooksfield, CT took the snapper pool with a 11 pound mango. AND Jason Fortin ofWest Palm Beach, FL took the AJ pool with a 24 pounder.

Capt. Carl took the Gulfstar out yesterday on a 16 hour trip and came back with a load! The weather was great, and our first stop was a good one! The Ajs bit their heads off, with many being keeper sized. As soon as they slowed down, the gags lit up, and we put many nice fish in the box. The we re-anchored on the other side of the piece and caught more jacks. Afdter that, we went to another spot, and the wind died off, so we motor fished it and put more nice gags in the boat! Our next drop was a little deeper, and did not produce much, so we moved on to a wreck. Right away, the Ajs bit again, then the gags followed, and we put a bunch more nice ones in the boat for sundown. Along with that, we had some keeper Red Groupers, scamps, and big American Red snappers, which were released unharmed. Next, was another wreck where we again motor fished it, and put some more gags in the boat. Our last drop produced a couple mangos to round out the catch! Kevin Hammer took the pool with a nice 16 lb gag!

The Gulfstar had yet another fantastic half day trip! We filled up stringers of grunts and seabass, and also caught many undersized groupers close to being keepers! The kids also outfished all the adults!!!! Great weather, and a great day.

The Viking Superstar was out today for an 8 hr trip. The weather was as nice as it gets! Our first stop in 60 foot of water had a lot of grunts, as well as short groupers. Our second stop had just a few more grunts, so we went further to 75 ft. and were welcomed by big grunts, triggerfish, a couple keeper Gag groupers, and some keeper Red Groupers, in between all the shorts! It was a beautiful day, and everyone caught something! Mike Williamson took the pool with a nice one!

The Viking Superstar returned from a 44 hr trip today with TONS of Grouper hanging! We started off at 3:00am Saturday and we picked some mangos. Then, at another stop at 5:00am, the gag grouper turned on!! We put many quality fish in the boat! After the sun came up and that bite died, we tried working the area for a while, but everything shut down. We then moved to another location and had a great Red Grouper spot, with keepers coming up all over to 24 lbs!! We worked this area and caught a few more, then headed out deeper. We stopped at one wreck in 160 ft and caught some gags, red groupers, scamps, porgies, and some American Reds (which were released unharmed). Next was another wreck in 135 ft, and the gags chewed!!! We put a LOT of 15-28 lb gags in the boat here! Even after the sun went down, we caught a few more gags, some lane snappers, vermillion snappers, mangos, and scamps! After that, it was back to the Grounds, were we picked away all night at Mangos, some gags, Red Groupers, Scamps, Porgies, and everything else! The next morning, we went to a large hump, and caught MORE nice gags to 29 lbs, and a couple Ajs. Last stop of the day, we caught MORE Gag Grouper, Red groupers, and snappers! It was a great trip and everyone had a blast! Scott Meyers of Sarasota, FL took the Grouper pool with a 29 lb gag, AND the AJ pool with a 26 lb AJ. John Tzainnes of Manhatan, NYtook the snapper pool with a hefty 9.8 lb mango! On another note, Richie Kessinger caught a 12 lb mango, but wasn’t in the pool!!

The Gulfstar was out on a half day trip today and what a great time it was! Beautiful weather, good fishing, and good people. Our first stop produced a ton of small gag grouper, as well as grunts and seabass. The next drop produced another ton of grunts and seabass, as well as a lot of small grouper. One GAG, however, made the grade at 23 inches! We also had triggerfish, and other assorted species.

The Superstar went out on an 8hr trip today. We had great weather, and good fishing! We caught tons of White Grunts, as well as a lot of groupers, with some keepers in the mix. Anthony Palisi from Long Island, NY took the pool with a nice 14 lb gag! His wife Linda, not to be outdone, also had a nice keeper in the boat, and lost a good one at the surface! It was a great trip and a lot of fun!!

The weather forecast was so so this weekend but everybody was excited to get out there and fish since our last trip to the grounds was red hot. The ride out was a bit uncomfortable and took an extra hour or so. The first drop was good with the Mangrove snapper biting very readily and the weather was not too bad the wind was ESE 15 -20 kts.

After sunrise we started bouncing grouper spots, picking away at the grouper on most of the spots. The weather was not as nice to us as the fish. The rain and wind had been on and off all day but, the fisherman were still fishing with incredible enthusiasm. The sundown bite was very good with the Gag Grouper and red porgy stealing the show. The Mangrove snappers did not show up until later that night inhaling dead Sardines and Threadfin Herring as fast as you can get close to the bottom. The wind continued to blow from the SE until about 1 30 am Sunday it then switched from the NE with it the air temp took a nose dive and most of our hardy fisherman hit the racks. At 3AM we made a 50 mile move through some very sloppy seas that felt like it took forever. Sunrise Sunday brisk NE wind and the rain gone our first drop was awesome Gag Grouper, Amberjack, Gag Grouper, Amberjack, Gag Grouper, Amberjack, all of the fishing rods were bowed over for about 2 hrs until things slowed down. Most of the fish were well over keeper size with some smaller ones mixed in. The next three drops had much smaller fish on them with a few legal size grouper mixed in.

The Ride in was slow and sloppy with lots of sunshine and happy fisherman. All in All the fishing was awesome and the weather sloppy. Good fishing, great people and fantastic memories.

The Superstar went out on a half day trip today from 11am to 4pm. The weather was great, and the fishing was good too! People had a lot of fun pulling in white grunts, seabass, and undersized grouper. A couple grouper were real close to being legal! Stringers were full, and all anglers went home with fish to eat. Norb Stachowski from Hartland, WI took the pool money with a sweet black seabass!!

The Viking Superstar was out on an 8 hr trip today. The weather, wind, and seas got nicer and nicer as the day went on, and the fishing got better and better as well. We started in 35 ft of water and caught some seabass, grunts, and small groupers. After another stop in 35 ft with the same results, we moved off to 45 ft. and fishing improved. We caught more seabass and grunts. The last stop of the day turned out to be the best as the groupers really started biting! We had some nice keeper gags, as well as everything else. Ron Rodriguez of Spring Hill, FL took home 2 keeper gags, as well as the jackpot money with a 9 pounder.

The Viking Superstar returned from its 44 hr trip last night with tons of fish!! Capt. Carl reports: "We started fishing at 3:00am Saturday morning and were welcomed by biting mangos! We were also catching red groupers and gags during the dark hours, with each spot producing a couple. As the sun came up, the mangos stopped biting, but the gags turned on!! Each spot held more gags anywhere from 8 pounds to 25 lbs. Jigging was very effective, as Phil Eastman from Eastmans Fishing Fleet in New Hampshire landed 4 on jigs, as well as 2 on baits. Tony Fish also landed 4 on jigs! They were chewing very good, and eating everything, all up until around 2:00 in the afternoon. Also in the mix were big porgies, a couple mangos, red groupers, and scamps. When things slowed up, we went to a wreck which produced more gags, all between 18 and 28 lbs! Then, it was back to the Middle Grounds where the mangos started turning on again! All night we picked away and many anglers filled their snapper limits! We also saw more gags and red groupers! Sunday morning, we set up on a large ledge, but it did not do much but 1 AJ and 1 gag. We did, however, get to witness a great casting contest between Mark and John from Massachusetts, where John picked up negative yardage, so Mark took the title easily! After that, our last stop was another wreck, and the Ajs finally started biting! Jigging again was effective, as well as live bait. We put many in the boat up to 32 pounds! There was also one more gag to boot! With great weather and constant action, the trip was a total success! We ended up with over 50 gags, about the same of Red Grouper, plenty of mangos and porgies, some triggers, scamps, and a load of Ajs! We beat the front coming home, and fileted fish for 4 hours!! Larry Clark of Jacksonville, FL took the snapper pool with a 8 lb mango. Tony Deluca, also of Jacksonville, took the Grouper pool with a 28 lb gag! Also, Phil Eastman of Seabrook, NH took the AJ pool with a 33 lb AJ! Thanks to everyone for all the laughs and a great trip!"

Todays 8 hr trip held beautiful weather! People had a great day in the sun catching groupers, lots of grunts, and seabass! We had a lot of small gags, with many just under the 22 inch minimum and some making the grade. The grunts and seabass also kept the rods bending and everyone had a blast! A special mention goes out to the Oak Run Fishing Club of Ocala, FL who had a great time. Luke Mullen, a member of the club, from Ocala, FL took the pool with a 8 lb gag! Nice job!!

The Viking Superstar just returned from the 16 hr Night Special. Fishing was picky, according to Capt. Carl. The first drop was loaded with pink porgies and a few mangos. The second drop produced a lot of Ajs non-stop… with just a few keepers, and barjacks. We also had a couple gags here, with Capt. George landing a beauty 27 pounder. We also had scamps and yellowtails here too.After that drop, things slowed down drastically, and we picked American Reds, which were released, a few more mangos, lane snappers, bee-liners, and more porgies. Basically, all we were missing were the mangos, as they did not bite too well, but most customers went home with a nice mess of filets. Eric Wright of Camanche, Iowa took the grouper pool with a 14 lb gag, and Carl Nelson of Tampa took the snapper pool with a 4 lb lane. Congrats!!

Captain Carl reports that the 44 hr trip on the Viking Superstar went well! The snapper fishing the first night was picky. We caught a few here and a few there. The morning bite proved to be successful. On one drop, we caught a ton of big Red Groupers, as well as a couple gags. We bounced around to a few more spots in 110 ft and caught a few more gags and red groupers, as well as some scamps and mangos. Then, we tried out a wreck and caught some nice Ajs and barjacks. Next stop was a big ledge where we scored some bigger Ajs, big gags, Red groupers, mangos, and porgies. After that, things slowed down a bit but we still managed some more gags, reds, and scamps. As night fell, the mango bite really started to turn on. Thing were difficult, however, because the porpoises were hungry too! They stole many, many fish throughout the night, but some anglers still limited out. The next morning we went to another wreck but it was slow. A few barjacks and break offs were all. Scott Meyers was the lucky winner of the grouper pool with a 18 lb gag (he had 8 for the trip, along with 2 red groupers for his limit, as well as his snapper limit). Marty Grasso took the AJ pool with a 28 pounder (he also had his limit of snapper!)! Bob Brown took the snapper pool with a sweet 9 lb mango! Also, a notable mention goes out to Lester Van Der Hoff drove all the way from New Jersey and caught 12 mangos, 7 groupers, and a lot of porgies! We certainly made a lot of moves and had to work for the fish, but we put a good catch together despite strong currents. Thanks everyone, and have a Happy New Year!!

Capt Rich reports that fishing has been outstanding on the Gulfstar! Friday nights 12 Hour Night Snapper trip had a pretty impressive variety of fish when they returned home this morning. Lots of yellow tail, lane, mangrove and vermillion snappers. Also a good amount of red and gag groupers, lots of jacks too. Capt Rich said that at least 40 American red groupers were caught and released. Austin McMullen, of Canada, took the pool with a nice red grouper.

Before heading out on the 12 Hour trip on Friday night, the Gulfstar had a great group of people out Half Day fishing. Everyone had a fantastic time catching sea bass, white grunts plus they saw lots of grouper action! The Gulfstar will have another Half Day trip tomorrow, departing at 11 AM. See you at the dock!

The Viking Superstar had an 8 hour trip today and came home with smiling faces and stringers of fish! The weather was flat calm and beautiful and the fish were biting. On each stop we made, we caught keeper gags, short red, gag, and scamp groupers, black seabass, grunts, and other species. It was a wonderful day! Robert Wade Hooper of Holiday, FL won the pool with a nice 12 lb gag!

The Viking Superstar was out this past weekend on another Florida Middle Grounds trip, and came back with a successful catch! Capt. Carl reports: "we started out the first night picking away at the mangos and red groupers. When the sun came up, we went inshore to 110ft. and caught gags to 24 lbs, red groupers, and some scamp. We worked this area for a while finding similar results. Then, we went to a 50 ft ledge where we hooked into some nice AJs to 55 lbs, and more gags. After that, the fishing became a little tougher, but we still managed more scamps, red groupers, and lots of porgies! We also checked out a wreck in 135 ft. and caught a few more AJs and broke off a lot of big gags. Here too, we found some nice sized lane snappers and scamps. Before night fell, we worked one more break and found a few more gags, red groupers, scamps, triggerfish, and mangos. The second night proved to be successful, with plenty of mangos, vermillion snappers, lanes, scamps, red groupers, and a few more gags... along with some big ARS that had to be released. Sunday morning, we looked at another wreck and started catching AJs pretty good, but then Capt. George AND Capt. Jerry both hooked into a pair of Goliaths which shut the AJ bite off. Both fish were landed and released, both @ 180lbs. Capt. George came out of retirement for this trip and he, along with Capt. Jerry, caught 18 different species of fish! They both caught 8 species of Grouper (Goliath, Gag, Red, Scamp, Graysby, Strawberry, Creole, and Soapfish), 4 species of snapper (mango, American Red, Vermillion, and Lane) 2 species of Jack (Amberjack and Barjack) 2 species of porgy (Margate and Pink), Grunts, and Triggerfish! I think, however, Capt. George will need a few more months to recover from it all!!!! Bob Brown also had a beauty AJ at 55 lbs and just edged out Capt. Georges big one! The largest snapper was a beauty 9 lb mango that was gaffed! The largest grouper was a sweet 24 lb gag!

The Superstar returned yesterday from another amazing trip! Capt. Carl reports "Our first drop was a weird one, with the current screaming to the south so we made a move and found some calmer waters. The mangos were biting OK, along with the Red Groupers and scamps. When the sun came up, we worked a break, and found more Red Groupers, and one nice gag (good job Tony). We worked our way up to a 50ft ledge and caught a few more scamps, red groupers, and snappers. We saw Amberjacks swimming, but we couldn't get them to bite. Then, we moved off to a wreck where we boated some more rusty belly groupers, along with a few ajs. Ben Gilliam Jr. was also able to bring up a 350 lb Goliath grouper! It was great watching him fight this impressive fish and wrestle him up from 130 ft of water. Once the fish was up, we snapped a few pictures, deflated his bladder, and sent him back down. After that, we went back to the grounds where we found more gags, red groupers, scamps, and snappers. As night fell, the mangos were biting. Many anglers caught their limits, even though the terrorists with fins (dolphins) were very persistent. The vermillion snappers were also biting, along with some big kingfish. When morning came on Sunday, we tried one spot we never fished before, and immediately a nice gag came up along with more red groupers and many break-offs. To round out an already stellar trip, we stopped at a wreck on the way home and it was an Amberjack SLAM! The mates were running around with gaffs not able to put them down. After boating many many nice Ajs, we decided to head for home. Stain "Lee" Tainter took both the grouper pool and the AJ pool with a 22 lb gag and a 43 lb AJ. Nice job Tainter! George Fox took the snapper pool with a 8 lb mango! Congrats everyone!

Both the Viking Superstar and Gulfstar returned today with similar EXCELLENT results!! Capt Rich reported that fishing on Friday night was ok and that Saturday saw some uncomfortable weather. By around 4 in the afternoon, the weather calmed down and the fish started biting. Capt. Carl reports that the Superstar (with the Equibore charter) started fishing at 3:00am at the Middle Grounds and right away, "the mangos were flying! We caught mangos, red groupers, scamps, and progies. When the sun came up, we bounced around and caught groupers, but the dolphins were terrorizing us by stealing fish…so we took a ride and got away from them. Then, the gags and red groupers were on fire! We landed many, but lost many more. There were also some kingfish in the mix! As night fell, the snappers lit up again, and many limits were filled. At 2:30am, we took a ride inshore to hunt more groupers. We found more gags, and amberjacks as well. When the boxes were full, we headed for home and got back early. Thanks to Mike Boyer and company for a fantastic trip, and MANY good times and laughs!

Capt Rich reported the same weather conditions. They had lots of red grouper, mangrove snapper and a respectable amount of gags. The Gulfstar anglers also brought home kingfish, amberjacks and porgies. Capt Rich and Capt Carl jumped back on the Gulfstar for a quick turn around trip, we haven't gotten any details yet.

The Superstar fished Friday night for night Snapper and Grouper. The weather and the fishing was not bad on the first and second drop we landed many short grouper, 1 keeper grouper about 15lbs and some decent snapper.

The weather got VERY bumpy after that, making it difficult to hold bottom even with 8 ounce sinkers. We drilled it out and picked at some more fish here and there. We moved around a bunch more times but things were slow. At about 2:30am the wind backed off some and the fish started to bite a bit better; all in all a slow night.

The Gulfstar was chartered on Sat morning, departure time was delayed an hour or so to let things calm down some out there and calm down they did! By noon it was flat calm. The fisherman on the Gulfstar had non stop Grouper action on every drop. The short grouper were biting and mixed in were the keepers after releasing lots of undersize grouper and breaking off many larger fish the fish box had a nice pile of keeper Gag Grouper and a few Mangrove Snapper in it and the fisherman had weary arms.

The two boats fished the same area with the same bait, I guess the weather was not on our side Friday night. Overall the fishing is excellent now so call and get out fishing because "you cant catch a grouper sittin on your pooper!" See you soon, Capt Rich

The 12 Hour Night Snapper Full Moon Special WILL SAIL TONIGHT! NO RESERVATIONS NECESSARY! The Superstar will leave at 6PM, do not miss the boat!

The Gulfstar will fish Half Day trips this Friday and Monday through Wednesday of next week. (Nov 26, 27 and 28). Departing at 11 AM, returning at 4 PM, costing only $40!

The Superstar is also planning an 8 HOUR ALL DAY trip on Monday, Nov 26.

727-938-5300 or simply book online! Any questions feel free to call!

SUNDAY, November 18, 2007

Capt. Carl just returned from our 44 hour trip with a great show of fish!! The weather was flat and beautiful the whole weekend and the fish were biting!! We started off with a bang, according to Capt. Carl. The mangos were biting pretty good, and the Red Groupers were coming up all over, and were all nice keepers! When daybreak came, we tried a large ledge for groupers and Ajs, but only had a few AJ bites, and busted off a LOT of fish, so, we moved on. We worked around the grounds until about 1 pm catching scamps, red groupers, porgies, etc., but things were slow. Then, we moved off to a wreck that produced a pair of 25 pound gags, along with some Ajs. After that, we moved on for our late afternoon slam!! There were more Red Groupers, lots of Gags, mangoes, and everything else biting like crazy into the night! By 11pm, the boat was at our Red Grouper limit, most anglers had their snapper limits, and we had kings coming as well!! Capt. Jerry tried some other spots that produced big Vermillion Snappers, and MORE GAGS!! The next morning we found some more Ajs on another wreck to round things out! It was a great trip, with Jim taking the Grouper pool with a 25 pound gag, Stainley Tainter took the AJ pool with a 34 pounder, and Earl Baptiste (ALL THE WAY FROM TORONTO!!!) won the snapper pool with a 9.8 lb mango! Thanks everyone!

The Viking Superstar returned from our 44 hour Middle Grounds trip just hours ago with some JUMBO VIKING SIZE FISH HANGING!! Capt Carl reports that the first night saw steady action with mango snappers, scamp groupers, red groupers, and a coule of gag groupers. When the first light of day came along, he stopped on a 40 ft ledge and the VIKING Amberjacks were biting!! We put a number of these in the boat, with two fish weighing in at over 70 pounds!! After that, the day bite seemed to have slowed down, with just a few porgies and snappers being caught, so after a number of drops, Capt Carl moved offshore to a wreck that produced more amberjacks, some big American Red Snappers that unfortunately had to be thrown back, and some big lane snappers. After the wreck, we moved to our sunset area and our first drop produced over a dozen gag groupers and a bunch of Red Groupers…as well as mangos. As night fell, the mango fishing got better and better, and many anglers filled their limits. We also saw more red, gag, and scamp groupers, as well as a couple of kingfish. The next morning, we tried a couple more big ledges and were rewarded with some more gag and red groupers, as well as Amberjacks. It was a pretty good trip. Be sure to check out the pics in our photo gallery!!

Vikings of Tarpon Springs is celebrating Veterans Day on Sunday, November 11th! In order to honor all American Veterans, the Gulfstar is offering Half Price to all Vets with proper ID. The Gulfstar will leave the dock at 11 AM and return at 4 PM.

Regular fare is $40, but for American Vets with proper ID the cost is $20. All tackle and cut bait, fishing license, parking, ice, stringers and coffee are included in the price of the trip.

Come and enjoy a day fishing aboard the Viking Gulfstar! NO RESERVATIONS NECESSARY FOR THIS ONE!

The Superstar is heading up the river right now, finishing up the Cobb Construction Charter. Capt. Rich just called in via radio and reports fantastic weather and awesome fishing. The group from Cobb saw a beautiful, flat, calm day and have 35 keeper gag grouper up to 16 lbs. Lots of shorts were released. Great job, guys!

Capt. Rich and the crew will be ready to do it all again tomorrow. We have a 12 Hour Grouper trip leaving the dock at 7am. Make your reservations online or just show up! See you in the morning!

The grouper bite has been on fire so Capt. Rich has added a 12 Hour Grouper trip to this Sunday's schedule. The Superstar willo depart at 7AM and return 7PM. Give us a call to get your reservation in! See you Sunday morning!

The Viking Superstar returned Tuesday afternoon from our Southeast Tackle Liquidators charter.

After Mookie cooked up chicken and steaks for everybody on Sunday evening, we headed out at eight oclock towards the grounds. We started fishing around two am, in not so perfect weather conditions, and saw a slow pick of mangrove snappers, vermillion snappers, red grouper, and porgies. When the sun came up, we tried a couple more spots on the middle grounds and picked some more red grouper, gag grouper, and American red snappers.

Capt. Rich decided to head a bit further offshore into deeper water, where one drop produced a bail job of American red snappers. Vince caught his red snapper limit on that one drop! After that we searched around in deep water for groupers with little success. We did pick many nice size red groupers, but the gags were few and far between. After that we came back into the middle grounds, stopped on a big ledge where we caught amberjacks up to forty pounds. We stayed at that spot until the sun went down, and the vermillion snappers were biting their heads off with some mangroves in the mix as well.

Throughout that night, we picked away at more mangroves, vermilions, and scamp groupers. Around three a.m., we decided to head inshore in search of more gag groupers. Each spot produced a couple of keepers, and we fished until noon before heading back to the dock.

All and all, it was a great trip! A huge thanks goes out to Vince and Gary of Southeast Tackle Liquidators for putting together yet another awesome trip!

The Superstar returned from our 44hr trip with a decent catch. We started fishing at 1:30am Sat. morning and saw a slow pick of mangos, ARS, and Red Groupers. During the daytime on Saturday, we picked away at Gags, Red Groupers, mangos, vermillions, scamps, American Reds, and porgies. The second night saw an improvement in snapper fishing where some anglers were able to fill their limits. The second day, we stopped at 3 different wrecks and were rewarded with big amberjacks, some gags, and more American Reds. Mary Towler took the grouper pool with a 16 lb gag, Randy Randell took the snapper pool with a 9 lb ARS, and Stainley Tainter took the AJ pool with a 52 lb donkey! Congrats everyone, and we look forward to another great season! The Superstar will head right back out tonight to the Middle Grounds on the annual Southeast Tackle charter. We will get a report up as soon as we get back!

The Mosaic Company of Plymouth, MN spent a Half Day fishing Wednesday on the Gulfstar. They did great! Doug and the rest of his group came home with 2 keeper gags and released over 100 short gag groupers. Plenty of sea bass and grunts were caught and a cobia was released. We are hoping to see the Mosaic Company spend another day fishing with us again soon.

Capt. Rich took the Gulfstar on another Half Day trip yesterday. Over 40 short gag groupers were released with 5 keepers. They also caught many sea bass and grunts plus released a black tip shark.

The Gulfstar has a full schedule of Half Day fishing, be sure to check out the link above. Our first 16 Hour Extended Day of the season is sailing on Thursday, Octobert 25 and 8 Hour All Day trips will start on Monday, November 5th.

The Superstar finally is back in Tarpon Springs! Capt. Rich and Capt. Steven arrived early Saturday morning and preparations have already begun for the 44 hour Middle Grounds trip on Friday, October 19. Once we get home on Sunday afternoon, the crew will turn around for the Annual Southeast Tackle Charter to the Middle Grounds.

October kicks off the beginning of our new season, so be sure you check out the 2007 / 2008 schedule. This year we have something for everyone! Beginning on October 15 the Gulfstar will offer Half Day fishing all week and 12 Hour Night Snapper trips on Friday and Saturday nights. Check out the schedule regarding the 4 Day Long Range and Deepwater trips! The Superstar will continue doing to the Middle Grounds every Friday, 8 Hour All Day trips on Mondays and 16 Hr Extended Day trips most Thursdays.

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The Superstar will be back in Florida in a few weeks and ready to hit the Middle Grounds on October 19. This season the Superstar crew will continue 8 Hour Day trips on Mondays, 16 Hour Extended Day trips every other Thursday and 44 Hour Middle Grounds trips every weekend.

08/17/2007 Capt Jerry Deepwater special Capt Jerry talked the crew and I into doing a special deepwater trip very different then the deepwater trips we have done in the past. On this trip we would target Mutton snapper, Scamp grouper and true black grouper).With the exception of the scamp, these are not the species that we normally target and only catch by accident. The trip sold out with mostly regulars that were looking to change things up a bit and fish for something different. We departed at 8pm on Friday night and ran through the night until dawn, yes that’s right almost 11 hrs. The bite was a slow pick of very nice scamp grouper and a couple of Gag grouper with one true black mixed in. we had one good charge of scamps and a couple of large amberjack during the day. Later that afternoon we ran another twenty miles to get in place for our night bite. When we arrived the fish finder was on fire showing fish all over, we anchored up and, well the fish weren’t ready. We sat for 1 hr until sundown waiting for them to bite but only on Mutton Snapper wanted to say high. The good part was that we now know that the muttons were in town. We then made a small move, reset the anchor and started to pack and the champagne porgies then the yellowtail snappers started biting some more big amberjack and then finally the Muttons started coming over the rails. The bite never got crazy but we had a good steady pick of very nice size Muttons some over 20lbs until about 3 am on Sunday. Most of our passengers have never caught mutton snapper so the smiles were all from ear to ear. PICS ARE COMING SOON CHECK THE GALLERY The trip overall was awesome, we never had a full-on insane bite but we caught a bunch of really awesome snapper and grouper. We did a lot of riding, more than we wanted to but the end result was happy clients and two full fish boxes. John blouse took the snapper pool with the largest mutton, jeff bobineaux walked away with the grouper jackpot and Wally Sobek had the winning amberjack WATCH OUR SCHEDULE FOR MORE NEW AND EXCITING TRIPS COMING UP

The crew is really looking forward to the 4 Day Long Range trip on August 26th. We will be traveling a bit to fish for Mahi Mahi, Wahoo, Tuna, Marlin and Sailfish. The Gulfstar will also be targeting deepwater groupers like Snowy, Yellow Edge, Scamp, Kitty Mitchell, Mystic and Blacks. During the night hours we will drift for Swordfish and Tuna.

This one is limited to only 10 passengers, so make your reservation quick. Call the office for details 727-938-5300.

This past Monday 8/13 on our 12 hour snapper trip we saw fantastic fishing with plenty of action. Lots of Grouper, (mostly undersized) about 2 dozen Mangrove Snappers, Bluefish, Sharks and Key West Grunts. Clint Moore captured a nice keeper Gag Grouper and seven Mangrove Snappers, Kenny Himes stuggled all night with mostly small fish, then caught an awesome Mangrove snapper just as Capt. Rich anounced it was time to bring up their lines so they could start back home. We still have room this Monday,,,,,call to reserve your spot today!

The Gulfstar left the dock Friday night with 14 passengers. The weather was a bit cranky during the ride out, but became decent once we reached the fishing grounds.

Fishing was excellent after the full moon; everyone caught lots of mangrove snapper and red grouper, huge AJs to 40 pounds and lots of awesome gag grouper.

Friday night we picked away at the red grouper, red snapper and mangos, on Saturday afternoon they started biting on dead bait.

Saturday night we fished a lot of really small spots allowing us to catch some trophy snappers. Fishing stayed steady this way until 2am.

Then we made a 50 mile run to the gag grouper grounds, lots of action for over 3 hours. We finished out the trip and headed home with lots of happy customers. Anthony Derosa won the mangrove snapper pool; Tom Holsman took the grouper pool, while Austin Holler finished up the AJ pool.

A big congratulation goes out to Tom Porter of St. Augustine, FL. Tom won a Free 44 Hour Middle Grounds in our July drawing! See on the Gulfstar soon, Tom!

Anyone interested in the 4 Day Long Range trip on August 26 should call the office at 727-938-5300 asap. It is expected to be an awesome one!

Sorry for the delayed reports! The Gulfstar has been on back-to-back trips for the last two weeks, fishing has been awesome!

Last Mondays 12 Hour Night Snapper trip was a slow pick of mangroves and white grunts. Bill Grasso took the pool with a 3lb mango. We are looking forward to next Mondays trip which will fall on the full moon.

The last two 44 Hour Middle Grounds trips have provided excellent snapper and red grouper fishing; however the gag grouper made us work a little harder.

The 2 Day Deepwater Special was a huge success. We fished between 400 and 600 feet, we caught LOTS of yellow edge grouper and scamp grouper, tons and tons of porgies mixed in (2-4lb), big red snappers and large Bliners (vermillion snapper. We caught a couple really nice kitty mitchells and gag grouper in the 20lb range. Check out the photo gallery to see the 3lb Longtail Bass. Everyone had an awesome time and wanted to know when we would be putting another trip like this together. Answer, August 26.

The Gulfstar will depart at 8pm, August 26 on a 4 Day Long Range Offshore Trip! Get your reservations in quick, this one will be limited to 10 passengers! Call for details.

4 DAY PELAGIC BONANZA The Gulfstar was loaded with Capt. Rich his crew and 10 very excited passengers. The long time planning for the 4-day Viking Gulf of Mexico Pelagic Species Bonanza was finally coming to fruition! At 8pm, Sunday, July 8th the Capt and his crew set off determined to catch a wide spectrum of fish in the Gulf. While trolling toward a spot, Capt. Rich stopped to fish for some bait and then steamed all night long toward their destination. With the sun coming up and a hot breakfast of eggs, bacon, ham and sausage with steaming hot coffee under our belts, we put out the trolling spread and boated a Wahoo instantly. That morning the Wahoo were hungry! We on the other hand were being fed sausage and pepper sandwiches…NY style. As our food was digesting we did a deep drop and caught snowy grouper, some great looking yellow edge grouper, champagne porgies around 8 lbs, groupers up to 25lbs. We continued trolling offshore until nightfall; it was a great start to the trip! Once nightfall came we dropped the swordfish lights (Sword Light distributed by Rumble Fish, Inc. 954-816-6561). We drifted all night, chumming, but it proved to be a very slow night. Once dawn came we began to troll again, by 10am Capt. Rich found the body of water he was looking for. Then it was FULL ON MAHI-MAHI BITE! We trolled most of the day, releasing the smaller fish. In the mix we caught ½ dozen Wahoo, and raised a blue marlin; however we couldn’t get him to take the bait. By sundown, the tired crew had boated 8 Wahoo, and 45 Mahi (up to 35lbs) in the box, many were released. We continued to drift for swordfish, fired up the BBQ and feasted on NY strip steaks, potato salad, etc. We drifted and chummed over night and caught more dolphin, but the swordfish continued to elude us. The next morning we had immediate Mahi & Wahoo action while trolling. Before sundown the Wahoo bite consisted of 15 and 25 more Mahi (coming in over 15lbs). During the afternoon Capt. Rich found a submerged Dory. He immediately tossed in a diamond jig, as he did around any floating objects he came across. (Check out the photo gallery to see a picture of Capt. Rich with the Wahoo caught on a jig. He used his custom jigging rod, built by Handler Custom Rods in Cape Canaveral, FL 321-543-8628) After a hot dinner, they steamed 80 miles to a spot Capt. Rich had wanted to fish since bringing the Gulfstar home from Louisiana last year. Once they got to that spot they broke put out the electric reels and instantly had 4 break-offs. They quickly regrouped and whacked 6 snowy grouper, weighing in between 5-51.2 lbs. They saw a few more yellow edge grouper and even a few cutlassfish. Things quickly slowed down. They started to steam home around 4:30am on Thursday morning, stopping a few times for some snapper and red groupers. The Gulfstar handled itself beautifully! We had plenty of fresh water for showers and the air conditioned bathrooms proved to be awesome perk. Keep tuned in for updates regarding more of these exciting trips being scheduled. Captain Rich is planning on doing a few starting August. Check back often! A href="http://www.vikingfleet.com/vikingnews/templates/Fishing.aspx?articleid=71&zoneid=14"> COMPLETE GULFSTAR SCHEDULE

July 6 2007 44 hour Florida Middle Grounds This weekend the bite was FULL ON the mangrove snapper, American red snapper, Red Grouper and Gag Grouper made for an easy trip. Friday night we started fishing at 11:30 pm and it was a good bite of Vermillion and Mangrove that lasted about 1.5 hrs the second drop was insane nonstop until sunrise. After breakfast capt jerry took the helm and put us over some real nice red grouper, the next few moves things got slow we then moved further offshore and pick a few nice red snapper and a few more red grouper. Sundown, the gags and the mangroves had a party under the boat topping off our mangrove limit we then moved around a few more times trying to avoid the mangrove snapper at 2am we took off for a 3.5 hr ride to gag grouper and red snapper heaven the sunrise bite was knock down with 4-8 lb red snapper and 8-12 lb gag grouper. Al leahy of FAST GLASS won the grouper jackpot and manny oliveria sr won the snapper jackpot and dave harmer landed the large amberjack.

12 HR MONDAY NIGHT SNAPPER with a real light load we went offshore 20 miles and managed to get a decent bite of mangrove snapper and gag grouper clint moore was high hook with 2 gags and 9 mangrove snapper. The Summer snapper bite is on so book now

The weather was once again awesome out on the grounds, the fishing was so-so this weekend the snappers never started chewing like crazy instead it was a steady pick all day and night. The day bite gave us some nice red groupers and red snapper, at sundown jackie gunter put a hurting on a 200 plus pound goliath grouper at daybreak we had a decent gag and red snapper bite. In the end we scraped together a pretty decent catch

Capt. Rich has just added an awesome trip to our schedule; we are now taking reservations for a Special 2 Day Deep Water trip on Tuesday, July 17th.

This 44 hour trip will depart on July 17th at 11pm and return on Thursday, July 19th at 7pm. Electric reels are ok to bring, we will also have them for rent at $50 each. NO spinning tackle for bottom fishing and 80 lb. test is a minimum requirement. We will be fishing between 180 and 360 feet.

The cost is $550 per person, this will include fishing license, frozen and live bait, parking and of course all meals and beverages. In addition, the limit will be 10 anglers!

Get your reservations in quickly, this one will fill up before you know it!

This weekends Middle Grounds trip was very successful! First of all, the weather was as good as it gets all weekend, with no wind and seas less than a foot! We started out fishing at 2:00am Sat morning and the fish were biting! For the first couple of hours of the trip we caught mangos, gags, scamps, vermillion snappers, and Red Grouper. Most of the red grouper, however, were short, so we moved to a different area and it was lock and load action! Most Red Grouper were keepers, and it wasn't long before we caught our boat limit of them and had to start throwing keeper sized fish back! We also picked away at the gag groupers as well. At around noon, we headed off into deeper water with little success. We only caught a few American Red Snapper and porgies. When we came back inshore to the Middle Grounds that evening, fishing was on again, with American Red Snappers, mangos, and gags being caught. We picked all night long, and most people, after catching their limit, went to bed for the night. When the sun came up Sunday morning, we tried a few wrecks and caught more American Red Snappers, kingfish, Jacks, and more scamps. It was a great trip with great people! Scott Wagner took both the Amberjack pool, with a 18 pounder, and the grouper pool with a 14 lb gag. Benjamin Gilliam Jr. won the snapper pool with a 12 pound American Red. Way to go guys!

The Gulfstar returned from its 1st Jig Em Up Special and it wasn't exactly what we had in mind. We started in 110ft and worked to 160 ft. Every stop produced bites right away, but then they quit. We caught Red Grouper, Scamp Grouper, mangrove snapper, vermillion snapper, American Red Snapper, Bonito, and porgchops on the jigs. Hammered diamond jigs 4oz and 6oz worked, as well as Shimano Butterfly jigs, 5oz to 7oz. Everyone worked hard at it all day, and finally, with just a few hours left in the trip, we broke out the bait. Along with the other fish mentioned, we also caught yellowtail snapper and gag grouper.

The Gulfstar returned this morning from a 12 hour night trip and fishing was slow. The weather was great, but the fish did not cooperate. We started at a wreck in 85 ft of water and ionly produced a few. Then, another spot in 82 ft of water produced a few more, but that was it. From there, we worked inshore everything down to 55 ft. and only saw a few here and there. We had a handful of mangos, gags, sea bass, grunts, and a couple kings.

The Gulfstar just returned from another successful Middle Grounds Trip. We started off fishing for snappers and we had just a slow, but steady pick the first night. Then, as the sun came up, we looked around for some groupers but only a handful were to be had…so we decided to go out to some deeper water and look around. Every stop, we picked just a few, then moved, picked a few more, but that was about it. Then, we hit a wreck which produced a non-stop bite of American Red Snappers. All rods doubled over and we had a blast bailing them. After that, we poked around some more and picked a couple more fish. At sun down, we started hammering the mangos, ARS, and scamps again. We made one stop at @ 9pm and BAILED big mangos for 3 hours until everyone on the boat caught their limits! After that, Capt. Carl decided to move inshore to find more groupers and he did. Unfortunately, only a couple were landed as most were broke off. Then, after the last drop helped put some Amberjacks in the boat, the trip was done. It was a lot of fun, and a great group of people. Miles Charlesworth of Orlando, FL took the grouper pool with a 16.3 lb gag…Bill Grasso of Spring Hill, FL (finally) took the snapper pool with a 8.5 lb American Red…and Peter Eidenberg of Wesley Chapel, FL took the AJ with a 19 pounder. Congrats to everyone!

June 8, 2007 GULFSTAR 44HR MIDDLE GROUNDS Great weather, all pass arrived early so we departed early. The fishing on the first night was not super fast paced but slow and steady. Saturday we went offshore to the 40 fathom break were we landed some very nice Red Snapper, Red Grouper, and a large Gag Grouper. Later Sat night we had very good snapper fishing until daybreak. The Ball Family ran away with the jackpots DJ, Do, and Nick captured 3 awesome fish a large red snapper, a huge mango and a 20lb Gag Grouper. CK out the awesome pics in our gallery

The Viking Superstar just returned from a 36 hour Middle Grounds Special with a nice load of fish. We had a nice window of good weather that made a huge difference. Going out was a bit rough, but the weather improved throughout the trip. The first night saw great action with mangos, red groupers, and scamp groupers being caught. The day bite was picky, with just a few Ajs, a few American Red Snappers, and a handful of gags being landed…though the mangos and porgies were biting very well. The second night saw decent action on the snapper front as well, and topped off most limits for our passengers. Mark Gunther from Sarasota took the grouper pool with a 16 pound gag… Paul Asherman from Tampa took the AJ pool with a 20 pounder…and Steve Grant from Georgia split top honors with Tony Spencer from Tampa for the largest snapper pool with a pair of 7.7 pound mangos! Congrats to everyone. We also want to thank everyone for another great season for the Viking Superstar. This was our last trip of the year and we look forward to seeing everyone when we return in November. The Gulfstar will be here all year round and running Middle Grounds trips and others all summer. We will see you then! 16 HR EXTENDED DAY 05/24 WINDY REPORT BUT NOT TOO BAD OUT THERE, it even got calm for a couple of hours. The fishing was great most of the day, the first few drops we were in the american reds real thick BUT they were mostly shorts. A little shift and we were in the snapper (ones that we could keep) Yellowtail, Lane, mangrove, vermillion, and Red. Porgys, red grouper and short gags. Finally we landed an awesome pair of gags fist one 12lbs and the second 22lbs. Lots of snapper and lots of Scamp grouper two nice Gag Grouper round out the trip making another great day had by all.JB Bolsvert won the jackpot with the 22lb Gag grouper and the 4.5lb American red snapper

LAZYBONES Monday 05/21 awesome weather 24 miles offshore lots of short Gag grouper and Key west grunts. We Captured Three Keeper Gags with the biggest going 14.5lbs. Lots of action and great weather" WHAT A DAY"

May 18 & 19 2007 TheViking Superstar went out on a 44 hr trip with Capt Paul Forsberg at the helm, we had to twist his arm only a little bit to come out of retirement for the weekend. The weather forecast was not very nice but it was fishable. The night bite was very good but the day bite was slow on the Middle grounds. The Superstar landed at 2pm with lots of snappers and some very nice gags. I had the Gulfstar out on an extended day trip 60+ miles offshore and had a good day catching yellowtail, lane, vermillion, red and mangrove snapper. The scamp grouper bite was on with many keepers coming over rail. Sunday the Gulfstar was chartered by Kokolakis Construction Company, the weather was much nicer but the fishing was veeeerrry slow, the fish just wouldnt bite, 60-100 ft of water it didnt make a difference. We came back home with one nice red grouper and a few white grunts. The guys had a great time laughing and joking making the best of it. We have a special 36 hr offshore trip on Friday 5/25 at 8 pm that returns Sunday at 8 am that we still have some spots available CALL NOW The Gulfstar is sold out for the weekend Congrats to all pool winners!

Friday May 25ths Middle Grounds Trip is the last trip on The Viking Superstar which still has openings. The 36 Hour Trip will depart the dock at 8pm on Friday and return at 8am on Sunday morning. Fishing has been EXCELLENT on the latest Middle Grounds Trips so hop on what promises to be a great Trip. Please also note that even though The Viking Superstar is heading up North for the Summer, The New High Speed 65 ft Gulfstar will be sailing all summer from Tarpon Springs.

Friday May 11th. The Viking Superstar and Gulfstar headed out Friday night to the Middle Grounds and both boats came home FULL of fish. Capt. Carl and Capt. Jerry took out the Superstar while Capt. Rich and Captain George took out the Gulfstar. Fishing the first night was full of action, with mangos, ARS, Scamps, and even Gags coming over the rails. Capt. Carl reports, " The Middle Grounds are really coming coming alive with the warmer water temps. We had a Sailfish swim right up to the boat, as well as Mahi mahis". The day bite was a little on the slow side, although Big ARS, Red Groupers and Gag Groupers were landed all day. There were also big Kingfish, Blackfin Tuna, Amberjacks and Cobia in the mix. The fishing is getting VERY GOOD and should remain so all Summer long.

Gulfstar, 27 days of engine room detail and the new 770 HP high speed Iveco diesel engines are ready for action. The sea trials with the coast guard went awesome they inspected the installation and said that it was perfect. The cruise speed is 20 kts and it tops out at 24.6. Since January we remodeled the interior including the heads and the shower, we added a new flat screen TV and a DVD player with surround sound and navigation electronics including satellite weather.

The Superstar returned yesterday from another amazing trip! Capt. Carl reports "Our first drop was a weird one, with the current screaming to the south so we made a move and found some calmer waters. The mangos were biting OK, along with the Red Groupers and scamps. When the sun came up, we worked a break, and found more Red Groupers, and one nice gag (good job Tony). We worked our way up to a 50ft ledge and caught a few more scamps, red groupers, and snappers. We saw Amberjacks swimming, but we couldn't get them to bite. Then, we moved off to a wreck where we boated some more rusty belly groupers, along with a few ajs. Ben Gilliam Jr. was also able to bring up a 350 lb Goliath grouper! It was great watching him fight this impressive fish and wrestle him up from 130 ft of water. Once the fish was up, we snapped a few pictures, deflated his bladder, and sent him back down. After that, we went back to the grounds where we found more gags, red groupers, scamps, and snappers. As night fell, the mangos were biting. Many anglers caught their limits, even though the terrorists with fins (dolphins) were very persistent. The vermillion snappers were also biting, along with some big kingfish. When morning came on Sunday, we tried one spot we never fished before, and immediately a nice gag came up along with more red groupers and many break-offs. To round out an already stellar trip, we stopped at a wreck on the way home and it was an Amberjack SLAM! The mates were running around with gaffs not able to put them down. After boating many many nice Ajs, we decided to head for home. Stain "Lee" Tainter took both the grouper pool and the AJ pool with a 22 lb gag and a 43 lb AJ. Nice job Tainter! George Fox took the snapper pool with a 8 lb mango! Congrats everyone!

Both the Viking Superstar and Gulfstar returned today with similar EXCELLENT results!! Capt Rich reported that fishing on Friday night was ok and that Saturday saw some uncomfortable weather. By around 4 in the afternoon, the weather calmed down and the fish started biting. Capt. Carl reports that the Superstar (with the Equibore charter) started fishing at 3:00am at the Middle Grounds and right away, "the mangos were flying! We caught mangos, red groupers, scamps, and progies. When the sun came up, we bounced around and caught groupers, but the dolphins were terrorizing us by stealing fish…so we took a ride and got away from them. Then, the gags and red groupers were on fire! We landed many, but lost many more. There were also some kingfish in the mix! As night fell, the snappers lit up again, and many limits were filled. At 2:30am, we took a ride inshore to hunt more groupers. We found more gags, and amberjacks as well. When the boxes were full, we headed for home and got back early. Thanks to Mike Boyer and company for a fantastic trip, and MANY good times and laughs!

Capt Rich reported the same weather conditions. They had lots of red grouper, mangrove snapper and a respectable amount of gags. The Gulfstar anglers also brought home kingfish, amberjacks and porgies. Capt Rich and Capt Carl jumped back on the Gulfstar for a quick turn around trip, we haven't gotten any details yet.

The Superstar fished Friday night for night Snapper and Grouper. The weather and the fishing was not bad on the first and second drop we landed many short grouper, 1 keeper grouper about 15lbs and some decent snapper.

The weather got VERY bumpy after that, making it difficult to hold bottom even with 8 ounce sinkers. We drilled it out and picked at some more fish here and there. We moved around a bunch more times but things were slow. At about 2:30am the wind backed off some and the fish started to bite a bit better; all in all a slow night.

The Gulfstar was chartered on Sat morning, departure time was delayed an hour or so to let things calm down some out there and calm down they did! By noon it was flat calm. The fisherman on the Gulfstar had non stop Grouper action on every drop. The short grouper were biting and mixed in were the keepers after releasing lots of undersize grouper and breaking off many larger fish the fish box had a nice pile of keeper Gag Grouper and a few Mangrove Snapper in it and the fisherman had weary arms.

The two boats fished the same area with the same bait, I guess the weather was not on our side Friday night. Overall the fishing is excellent now so call and get out fishing because "you cant catch a grouper sittin on your pooper!" See you soon, Capt Rich

The 12 Hour Night Snapper Full Moon Special WILL SAIL TONIGHT! NO RESERVATIONS NECESSARY! The Superstar will leave at 6PM, do not miss the boat!

The Gulfstar will fish Half Day trips this Friday and Monday through Wednesday of next week. (Nov 26, 27 and 28). Departing at 11 AM, returning at 4 PM, costing only $40!

The Superstar is also planning an 8 HOUR ALL DAY trip on Monday, Nov 26.

727-938-5300 or simply book online! Any questions feel free to call!

SUNDAY, November 18, 2007

Capt. Carl just returned from our 44 hour trip with a great show of fish!! The weather was flat and beautiful the whole weekend and the fish were biting!! We started off with a bang, according to Capt. Carl. The mangos were biting pretty good, and the Red Groupers were coming up all over, and were all nice keepers! When daybreak came, we tried a large ledge for groupers and Ajs, but only had a few AJ bites, and busted off a LOT of fish, so, we moved on. We worked around the grounds until about 1 pm catching scamps, red groupers, porgies, etc., but things were slow. Then, we moved off to a wreck that produced a pair of 25 pound gags, along with some Ajs. After that, we moved on for our late afternoon slam!! There were more Red Groupers, lots of Gags, mangoes, and everything else biting like crazy into the night! By 11pm, the boat was at our Red Grouper limit, most anglers had their snapper limits, and we had kings coming as well!! Capt. Jerry tried some other spots that produced big Vermillion Snappers, and MORE GAGS!! The next morning we found some more Ajs on another wreck to round things out! It was a great trip, with Jim taking the Grouper pool with a 25 pound gag, Stainley Tainter took the AJ pool with a 34 pounder, and Earl Baptiste (ALL THE WAY FROM TORONTO!!!) won the snapper pool with a 9.8 lb mango! Thanks everyone!

The Viking Superstar returned from our 44 hour Middle Grounds trip just hours ago with some JUMBO VIKING SIZE FISH HANGING!! Capt Carl reports that the first night saw steady action with mango snappers, scamp groupers, red groupers, and a couple of gag groupers. When the first light of day came along, he stopped on a 40 ft ledge and the VIKING Amberjacks were biting!! We put a number of these in the boat, with two fish weighing in at over 70 pounds!! After that, the day bite seemed to have slowed down, with just a few porgies and snappers being caught, so after a number of drops, Capt Carl moved offshore to a wreck that produced more amberjacks, some big American Red Snappers that unfortunately had to be thrown back, and some big lane snappers. After the wreck, we moved to our sunset area and our first drop produced over a dozen gag groupers and a bunch of Red Groupers…as well as mangos. As night fell, the mango fishing got better and better, and many anglers filled their limits. We also saw more red, gag, and scamp groupers, as well as a couple of kingfish. The next morning, we tried a couple more big ledges and were rewarded with some more gag and red groupers, as well as Amberjacks. It was a pretty good trip. Be sure to check out the pics in our photo gallery!!

Vikings of Tarpon Springs is celebrating Veterans Day on Sunday, November 11th! In order to honor all American Veterans, the Gulfstar is offering Half Price to all Vets with proper ID. The Gulfstar will leave the dock at 11 AM and return at 4 PM.

Regular fare is $40, but for American Vets with proper ID the cost is $20. All tackle and cut bait, fishing license, parking, ice, stringers and coffee are included in the price of the trip.

Come and enjoy a day fishing aboard the Viking Gulfstar! NO RESERVATIONS NECESSARY FOR THIS ONE!

The Superstar is heading up the river right now, finishing up the Cobb Construction Charter. Capt. Rich just called in via radio and reports fantastic weather and awesome fishing. The group from Cobb saw a beautiful, flat, calm day and have 35 keeper gag grouper up to 16 lbs. Lots of shorts were released. Great job, guys!

Capt. Rich and the crew will be ready to do it all again tomorrow. We have a 12 Hour Grouper trip leaving the dock at 7am. Make your reservations online or just show up! See you in the morning!

The grouper bite has been on fire so Capt. Rich has added a 12 Hour Grouper trip to this Sunday's schedule. The Superstar willo depart at 7AM and return 7PM. Give us a call to get your reservation in! See you Sunday morning!

The Viking Superstar returned Tuesday afternoon from our Southeast Tackle Liquidators charter.

After Mookie cooked up chicken and steaks for everybody on Sunday evening, we headed out at eight o'clock towards the grounds. We started fishing around two am, in not so perfect weather conditions, and saw a slow pick of mangrove snappers, vermillion snappers, red grouper, and porgies. When the sun came up, we tried a couple more spots on the middle grounds and picked some more red grouper, gag grouper, and American red snappers.

Capt. Rich decided to head a bit further offshore into deeper water, where one drop produced a bail job of American red snappers. Vince caught his red snapper limit on that one drop! After that we searched around in deep water for groupers with little success. We did pick many nice size red groupers, but the gags were few and far between. After that we came back into the middle grounds, stopped on a big ledge where we caught amberjacks up to forty pounds. We stayed at that spot until the sun went down, and the vermillion snappers were biting their heads off with some mangroves in the mix as well.

Throughout that night, we picked away at more mangroves, vermilions, and scamp groupers. Around three a.m., we decided to head inshore in search of more gag groupers. Each spot produced a couple of keepers, and we fished until noon before heading back to the dock.

All and all, it was a great trip! A huge thanks goes out to Vince and Gary of Southeast Tackle Liquidators for putting together yet another awesome trip!

The Superstar returned from our 44hr trip with a decent catch. We started fishing at 1:30am Sat. morning and saw a slow pick of mangos, ARS, and Red Groupers. During the daytime on Saturday, we picked away at Gags, Red Groupers, mangos, vermillions, scamps, American Reds, and porgies. The second night saw an improvement in snapper fishing where some anglers were able to fill their limits. The second day, we stopped at 3 different wrecks and were rewarded with big amberjacks, some gags, and more American Reds. Mary Towler took the grouper pool with a 16 lb gag, Randy Randell took the snapper pool with a 9 lb ARS, and Stainley Tainter took the AJ pool with a 52 lb donkey! Congrats everyone, and we look forward to another great season! The Superstar will head right back out tonight to the Middle Grounds on the annual Southeast Tackle charter. We will get a report up as soon as we get back!

The Mosaic Company of Plymouth, MN spent a Half Day fishing Wednesday on the Gulfstar. They did great! Doug and the rest of his group came home with 2 keeper gags and released over 100 short gag groupers. Plenty of sea bass and grunts were caught and a cobia was released. We are hoping to see the Mosaic Company spend another day fishing with us again soon.

Capt. Rich took the Gulfstar on another Half Day trip yesterday. Over 40 short gag groupers were released with 5 keepers. They also caught many sea bass and grunts plus released a black tip shark.

The Gulfstar has a full schedule of Half Day fishing, be sure to check out the link above. Our first 16 Hour Extended Day of the season is sailing on Thursday, Octobert 25 and 8 Hour All Day trips will start on Monday, November 5th.

The Superstar finally is back in Tarpon Springs! Capt. Rich and Capt. Steven arrived early Saturday morning and preparations have already begun for the 44 hour Middle Grounds trip on Friday, October 19. Once we get home on Sunday afternoon, the crew will turn around for the Annual Southeast Tackle Charter to the Middle Grounds.

October kicks off the beginning of our new season, so be sure you check out the 2007 / 2008 schedule. This year we have something for everyone! Beginning on October 15 the Gulfstar will offer Half Day fishing all week and 12 Hour Night Snapper trips on Friday and Saturday nights. Check out the schedule regarding the 4 Day Long Range and Deepwater trips! The Superstar will continue doing to the Middle Grounds every Friday, 8 Hour All Day trips on Mondays and 16 Hr Extended Day trips most Thursdays.

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The Superstar will be back in Florida in a few weeks and ready to hit the Middle Grounds on October 19. This season the Superstar crew will continue 8 Hour Day trips on Mondays, 16 Hour Extended Day trips every other Thursday and 44 Hour Middle Grounds trips every weekend.

08/17/2007 Capt Jerry Deepwater special Capt Jerry talked the crew and I into doing a special deepwater trip very different then the deepwater trips we have done in the past. On this trip we would target Mutton snapper, Scamp grouper and true black grouper).With the exception of the scamp, these are not the species that we normally target and only catch by accident. The trip sold out with mostly regulars that were looking to change things up a bit and fish for something different. We departed at 8pm on Friday night and ran through the night until dawn, yes that’s right almost 11 hrs. The bite was a slow pick of very nice scamp grouper and a couple of Gag grouper with one true black mixed in. we had one good charge of scamps and a couple of large amberjack during the day. Later that afternoon we ran another twenty miles to get in place for our night bite. When we arrived the fish finder was on fire showing fish all over, we anchored up and, well the fish weren’t ready. We sat for 1 hr until sundown waiting for them to bite but only on Mutton Snapper wanted to say high. The good part was that we now know that the muttons were in town. We then made a small move, reset the anchor and started to pack and the champagne porgies then the yellowtail snappers started biting some more big amberjack and then finally the Muttons started coming over the rails. The bite never got crazy but we had a good steady pick of very nice size Muttons some over 20lbs until about 3 am on Sunday. Most of our passengers have never caught mutton snapper so the smiles were all from ear to ear. PICS ARE COMING SOON CHECK THE GALLERY The trip overall was awesome, we never had a full-on insane bite but we caught a bunch of really awesome snapper and grouper. We did a lot of riding, more than we wanted to but the end result was happy clients and two full fish boxes. John blouse took the snapper pool with the largest mutton, jeff bobineaux walked away with the grouper jackpot and Wally Sobek had the winning amberjack WATCH OUR SCHEDULE FOR MORE NEW AND EXCITING TRIPS COMING UP

The crew is really looking forward to the 4 Day Long Range trip on August 26th. We will be traveling a bit to fish for Mahi Mahi, Wahoo, Tuna, Marlin and Sailfish. The Gulfstar will also be targeting deepwater groupers like Snowy, Yellow Edge, Scamp, Kitty Mitchell, Mystic and Blacks. During the night hours we will drift for Swordfish and Tuna.

This one is limited to only 10 passengers, so make your reservation quick. Call the office for details 727-938-5300.

This past Monday 8/13 on our 12 hour snapper trip we saw fantastic fishing with plenty of action. Lots of Grouper, (mostly undersized) about 2 dozen Mangrove Snappers, Bluefish, Sharks and Key West Grunts. Clint Moore captured a nice keeper Gag Grouper and seven Mangrove Snappers, Kenny Himes stuggled all night with mostly small fish, then caught an awesome Mangrove snapper just as Capt. Rich anounced it was time to bring up their lines so they could start back home. We still have room this Monday,,,,,call to reserve your spot today!

The Gulfstar left the dock Friday night with 14 passengers. The weather was a bit cranky during the ride out, but became decent once we reached the fishing grounds.

Fishing was excellent after the full moon; everyone caught lots of mangrove snapper and red grouper, huge AJs to 40 pounds and lots of awesome gag grouper.

Friday night we picked away at the red grouper, red snapper and mangos, on Saturday afternoon they started biting on dead bait.

Saturday night we fished a lot of really small spots allowing us to catch some trophy snappers. Fishing stayed steady this way until 2am.

Then we made a 50 mile run to the gag grouper grounds, lots of action for over 3 hours. We finished out the trip and headed home with lots of happy customers. Anthony Derosa won the mangrove snapper pool; Tom Holsman took the grouper pool, while Austin Holler finished up the AJ pool.

A big congratulation goes out to Tom Porter of St. Augustine, FL. Tom won a Free 44 Hour Middle Grounds in our July drawing! See on the Gulfstar soon, Tom!

Anyone interested in the 4 Day Long Range trip on August 26 should call the office at 727-938-5300 asap. It is expected to be an awesome one!

Sorry for the delayed reports! The Gulfstar has been on back-to-back trips for the last two weeks, fishing has been awesome!

Last Mondays 12 Hour Night Snapper trip was a slow pick of mangroves and white grunts. Bill Grasso took the pool with a 3lb mango. We are looking forward to next Mondays trip which will fall on the full moon.

The last two 44 Hour Middle Grounds trips have provided excellent snapper and red grouper fishing; however the gag grouper made us work a little harder.

The 2 Day Deepwater Special was a huge success. We fished between 400 and 600 feet, we caught LOTS of yellow edge grouper and scamp grouper, tons and tons of porgies mixed in (2-4lb), big red snappers and large Bliners (vermillion snapper. We caught a couple really nice kitty mitchells and gag grouper in the 20lb range. Check out the photo gallery to see the 3lb Longtail Bass. Everyone had an awesome time and wanted to know when we would be putting another trip like this together. Answer, August 26.

The Gulfstar will depart at 8pm, August 26 on a 4 Day Long Range Offshore Trip! Get your reservations in quick, this one will be limited to 10 passengers! Call for details.

4 DAY PELAGIC BONANZA The Gulfstar was loaded with Capt. Rich his crew and 10 very excited passengers. The long time planning for the 4-day Viking Gulf of Mexico Pelagic Species Bonanza was finally coming to fruition! At 8pm, Sunday, July 8th the Capt and his crew set off determined to catch a wide spectrum of fish in the Gulf. While trolling toward a spot, Capt. Rich stopped to fish for some bait and then steamed all night long toward their destination. With the sun coming up and a hot breakfast of eggs, bacon, ham and sausage with steaming hot coffee under our belts, we put out the trolling spread and boated a Wahoo instantly. That morning the Wahoo were hungry! We on the other hand were being fed sausage and pepper sandwiches…NY style. As our food was digesting we did a deep drop and caught snowy grouper, some great looking yellow edge grouper, champagne porgies around 8 lbs, groupers up to 25lbs. We continued trolling offshore until nightfall; it was a great start to the trip! Once nightfall came we dropped the swordfish lights (Sword Light distributed by Rumble Fish, Inc. 954-816-6561). We drifted all night, chumming, but it proved to be a very slow night. Once dawn came we began to troll again, by 10am Capt. Rich found the body of water he was looking for. Then it was FULL ON MAHI-MAHI BITE! We trolled most of the day, releasing the smaller fish. In the mix we caught ½ dozen Wahoo, and raised a blue marlin; however we couldn’t get him to take the bait. By sundown, the tired crew had boated 8 Wahoo, and 45 Mahi (up to 35lbs) in the box, many were released. We continued to drift for swordfish, fired up the BBQ and feasted on NY strip steaks, potato salad, etc. We drifted and chummed over night and caught more dolphin, but the swordfish continued to elude us. The next morning we had immediate Mahi & Wahoo action while trolling. Before sundown the Wahoo bite consisted of 15 and 25 more Mahi (coming in over 15lbs). During the afternoon Capt. Rich found a submerged Dory. He immediately tossed in a diamond jig, as he did around any floating objects he came across. (Check out the photo gallery to see a picture of Capt. Rich with the Wahoo caught on a jig. He used his custom jigging rod, built by Handler Custom Rods in Cape Canaveral, FL 321-543-8628) After a hot dinner, they steamed 80 miles to a spot Capt. Rich had wanted to fish since bringing the Gulfstar home from Louisiana last year. Once they got to that spot they broke put out the electric reels and instantly had 4 break-offs. They quickly regrouped and whacked 6 snowy grouper, weighing in between 5-51.2 lbs. They saw a few more yellow edge grouper and even a few cutlassfish. Things quickly slowed down. They started to steam home around 4:30am on Thursday morning, stopping a few times for some snapper and red groupers. The Gulfstar handled itself beautifully! We had plenty of fresh water for showers and the air conditioned bathrooms proved to be awesome perk. Keep tuned in for updates regarding more of these exciting trips being scheduled. Captain Rich is planning on doing a few starting August. Check back often! A href="http://www.vikingfleet.com/vikingnews/templates/Fishing.aspx?articleid=71&zoneid=14"> COMPLETE GULFSTAR SCHEDULE

July 6 2007 44 hour Florida Middle Grounds This weekend the bite was FULL ON the mangrove snapper, American red snapper, Red Grouper and Gag Grouper made for an easy trip. Friday night we started fishing at 11:30 pm and it was a good bite of Vermillion and Mangrove that lasted about 1.5 hrs the second drop was insane nonstop until sunrise. After breakfast capt jerry took the helm and put us over some real nice red grouper, the next few moves things got slow we then moved further offshore and pick a few nice red snapper and a few more red grouper. Sundown, the gags and the mangroves had a party under the boat topping off our mangrove limit we then moved around a few more times trying to avoid the mangrove snapper at 2am we took off for a 3.5 hr ride to gag grouper and red snapper heaven the sunrise bite was knock down with 4-8 lb red snapper and 8-12 lb gag grouper. Al leahy of FAST GLASS won the grouper jackpot and manny oliveria sr won the snapper jackpot and dave harmer landed the large amberjack.

12 HR MONDAY NIGHT SNAPPER with a real light load we went offshore 20 miles and managed to get a decent bite of mangrove snapper and gag grouper clint moore was high hook with 2 gags and 9 mangrove snapper. The Summer snapper bite is on so book now

The weather was once again awesome out on the grounds, the fishing was so-so this weekend the snappers never started chewing like crazy instead it was a steady pick all day and night. The day bite gave us some nice red groupers and red snapper, at sundown jackie gunter put a hurting on a 200 plus pound goliath grouper at daybreak we had a decent gag and red snapper bite. In the end we scraped together a pretty decent catch

Capt. Rich has just added an awesome trip to our schedule; we are now taking reservations for a Special 2 Day Deep Water trip on Tuesday, July 17th.

This 44 hour trip will depart on July 17th at 11pm and return on Thursday, July 19th at 7pm. Electric reels are ok to bring, we will also have them for rent at $50 each. NO spinning tackle for bottom fishing and 80 lb. test is a minimum requirement. We will be fishing between 180 and 360 feet.

The cost is $550 per person, this will include fishing license, frozen and live bait, parking and of course all meals and beverages. In addition, the limit will be 10 anglers!

Get your reservations in quickly, this one will fill up before you know it!

This weekends Middle Grounds trip was very successful! First of all, the weather was as good as it gets all weekend, with no wind and seas less than a foot! We started out fishing at 2:00am Sat morning and the fish were biting! For the first couple of hours of the trip we caught mangos, gags, scamps, vermillion snappers, and Red Grouper. Most of the red grouper, however, were short, so we moved to a different area and it was lock and load action! Most Red Grouper were keepers, and it wasn't long before we caught our boat limit of them and had to start throwing keeper sized fish back! We also picked away at the gag groupers as well. At around noon, we headed off into deeper water with little success. We only caught a few American Red Snapper and porgies. When we came back inshore to the Middle Grounds that evening, fishing was on again, with American Red Snappers, mangos, and gags being caught. We picked all night long, and most people, after catching their limit, went to bed for the night. When the sun came up Sunday morning, we tried a few wrecks and caught more American Red Snappers, kingfish, Jacks, and more scamps. It was a great trip with great people! Scott Wagner took both the Amberjack pool, with a 18 pounder, and the grouper pool with a 14 lb gag. Benjamin Gilliam Jr. won the snapper pool with a 12 pound American Red. Way to go guys!

The Gulfstar returned from its 1st Jig Em Up Special and it wasn't exactly what we had in mind. We started in 110ft and worked to 160 ft. Every stop produced bites right away, but then they quit. We caught Red Grouper, Scamp Grouper, mangrove snapper, vermillion snapper, American Red Snapper, Bonito, and porgchops on the jigs. Hammered diamond jigs 4oz and 6oz worked, as well as Shimano Butterfly jigs, 5oz to 7oz. Everyone worked hard at it all day, and finally, with just a few hours left in the trip, we broke out the bait. Along with the other fish mentioned, we also caught yellowtail snapper and gag grouper.

The Gulfstar returned this morning from a 12 hour night trip and fishing was slow. The weather was great, but the fish did not cooperate. We started at a wreck in 85 ft of water and ionly produced a few. Then, another spot in 82 ft of water produced a few more, but that was it. From there, we worked inshore everything down to 55 ft. and only saw a few here and there. We had a handful of mangos, gags, sea bass, grunts, and a couple kings.

The Gulfstar just returned from another successful Middle Grounds Trip. We started off fishing for snappers and we had just a slow, but steady pick the first night. Then, as the sun came up, we looked around for some groupers but only a handful were to be had…so we decided to go out to some deeper water and look around. Every stop, we picked just a few, then moved, picked a few more, but that was about it. Then, we hit a wreck which produced a non-stop bite of American Red Snappers. All rods doubled over and we had a blast bailing them. After that, we poked around some more and picked a couple more fish. At sun down, we started hammering the mangos, ARS, and scamps again. We made one stop at @ 9pm and BAILED big mangos for 3 hours until everyone on the boat caught their limits! After that, Capt. Carl decided to move inshore to find more groupers and he did. Unfortunately, only a couple were landed as most were broke off. Then, after the last drop helped put some Amberjacks in the boat, the trip was done. It was a lot of fun, and a great group of people. Miles Charlesworth of Orlando, FL took the grouper pool with a 16.3 lb gag…Bill Grasso of Spring Hill, FL (finally) took the snapper pool with a 8.5 lb American Red…and Peter Eidenberg of Wesley Chapel, FL took the AJ with a 19 pounder. Congrats to everyone!

June 8, 2007 GULFSTAR 44HR MIDDLE GROUNDS Great weather, all pass arrived early so we departed early. The fishing on the first night was not super fast paced but slow and steady. Saturday we went offshore to the 40 fathom break were we landed some very nice Red Snapper, Red Grouper, and a large Gag Grouper. Later Sat night we had very good snapper fishing until daybreak. The Ball Family ran away with the jackpots DJ, Do, and Nick captured 3 awesome fish a large red snapper, a huge mango and a 20lb Gag Grouper. CK out the awesome pics in our gallery

The Viking Superstar just returned from a 36 hour Middle Grounds Special with a nice load of fish. We had a nice window of good weather that made a huge difference. Going out was a bit rough, but the weather improved throughout the trip. The first night saw great action with mangos, red groupers, and scamp groupers being caught. The day bite was picky, with just a few Ajs, a few American Red Snappers, and a handful of gags being landed…though the mangos and porgies were biting very well. The second night saw decent action on the snapper front as well, and topped off most limits for our passengers. Mark Gunther from Sarasota took the grouper pool with a 16 pound gag… Paul Asherman from Tampa took the AJ pool with a 20 pounder…and Steve Grant from Georgia split top honors with Tony Spencer from Tampa for the largest snapper pool with a pair of 7.7 pound mangos! Congrats to everyone. We also want to thank everyone for another great season for the Viking Superstar. This was our last trip of the year and we look forward to seeing everyone when we return in November. The Gulfstar will be here all year round and running Middle Grounds trips and others all summer. We will see you then! 16 HR EXTENDED DAY 05/24 WINDY REPORT BUT NOT TOO BAD OUT THERE, it even got calm for a couple of hours. The fishing was great most of the day, the first few drops we were in the American reds real thick BUT they were mostly shorts. A little shift and we were in the snapper (ones that we could keep) Yellowtail, Lane, mangrove, vermillion, and Red. Porgys, red grouper and short gags. Finally we landed an awesome pair of gags fist one 12lbs and the second 22lbs. Lots of snapper and lots of Scamp grouper two nice Gag Grouper round out the trip making another great day had by all. JB Bolsvert won the jackpot with the 22lb Gag grouper and the 4.5lb American red snapper

LAZYBONES Monday 05/21 awesome weather 24 miles offshore lots of short Gag grouper and Key west grunts. We Captured Three Keeper Gags with the biggest going 14.5lbs. Lots of action and great weather" WHAT A DAY"

May 18 & 19 2007 The Viking Superstar went out on a 44 hr trip with Capt Paul Forsberg at the helm, we had to twist his arm only a little bit to come out of retirement for the weekend. The weather forecast was not very nice but it was fishable. The night bite was very good but the day bite was slow on the Middle grounds. The Superstar landed at 2pm with lots of snappers and some very nice gags. I had the Gulfstar out on an extended day trip 60+ miles offshore and had a good day catching yellowtail, lane, vermillion, red and mangrove snapper. The scamp grouper bite was on with many keepers coming over rail. Sunday the Gulfstar was chartered by Kokolakis Construction Company, the weather was much nicer but the fishing was veeeerrry slow, the fish just wouldnt bite, 60-100 ft of water it didnt make a difference. We came back home with one nice red grouper and a few white grunts. The guys had a great time laughing and joking making the best of it. We have a special 36 hr offshore trip on Friday 5/25 at 8 pm that returns Sunday at 8 am that we still have some spots available CALL NOW The Gulfstar is sold out for the weekend Congrats to all pool winners!

Friday May 25ths Middle Grounds Trip is the last trip on The Viking Superstar which still has openings. The 36 Hour Trip will depart the dock at 8pm on Friday and return at 8am on Sunday morning. Fishing has been EXCELLENT on the latest Middle Grounds Trips so hop on what promises to be a great Trip. Please also note that even though The Viking Superstar is heading up North for the Summer, The New High Speed 65 ft Gulfstar will be sailing all summer from Tarpon Springs.

Friday May 11th. The Viking Superstar and Gulfstar headed out Friday night to the Middle Grounds and both boats came home FULL of fish. Capt. Carl and Capt. Jerry took out the Superstar while Capt. Rich and Captain George took out the Gulfstar. Fishing the first night was full of action, with mangos, ARS, Scamps, and even Gags coming over the rails. Capt. Carl reports, " The Middle Grounds are really coming coming alive with the warmer water temps. We had a Sailfish swim right up to the boat, as well as Mahi mahis". The day bite was a little on the slow side, although Big ARS, Red Groupers and Gag Groupers were landed all day. There were also big Kingfish, Blackfin Tuna, Amberjacks and Cobia in the mix. The fishing is getting VERY GOOD and should remain so all Summer long.

Gulfstar, 27 days of engine room detail and the new 770 HP high speed Iveco diesel engines are ready for action. The sea trials with the coast guard went awesome they inspected the installation and said that it was perfect. The cruise speed is 20 kts and it tops out at 24.6. Since January we remodeled the interior including the heads and the shower, we added a new flat screen TV and a DVD player with surround sound and navigation electronics including satellite weather.

Oct 23 14 Hour Night Snapper $ 155

Oct 25 Half Day $ 55

Oct 30 44 Hour Middle Grounds $ 480

Nov 6 14 Hour Night Snapper $ 155

Nov 13 44 Hour Middle Grounds $ 480

Nov 20 44 Hour Middle Grounds $ 480

Do you have any photos taken aboard the Gulfstar? If you have taken any pictures of your own during a trip on the Gulfstar, we would love for you to forward them to us. Send us pics from Half Days, 14 Hour, 18 Hour, 24 Hour, 44 Hour, and 4 Day. Maybe we will have a photo contest, who knows? Email them to vikingfleet@hotmail.com.

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Report from Capt. George

The 48 Hr Capt Jerry Special extended weekend trip turned into a very unique trip for all attending. The main players for this weekend were grouper and mutton snapper.

This trip had a 6pm cast off. Our first drop will be around the 100 mile mark with the target depths to 400 feet, not for the weak of heart. A quick stop to pick some bigger bait off a local wreck was included. After loading the bait well, the course was set for a long and bumpy run. At day break we set up on a wreck in 180 feet that brought a quick pick of gags, AJs and red grouper. By sundown on Sat evening we got ready to set up in 380 feet for more grouper, but the wind and current against each other made it impossible to be in that depth. Capt Jerry changed his game plan and moved to 270 feet, catching some gags and large red grouper (aka firetrucks). We also finished off the AJ limit.

Capt Jerry had been planning this trip for a long time with a gag and mutton showdown. When the time was right, he moved to the mutton mound where dreams came true. The average was easily 12 pounds with the high being 24 pounds on my Boga grip. Along with the muttons, many flag yellowtail and mangos four lbs or greater. Overall the trip ended with many quality fish and happy customers, with great pictures to follow. James Rinaldi won the grouper pool with a 26 lb gag and Carlos Boetticher won the snapper with a 20 lb red. Another great trip.

Capt Rich just added a special 48 Hour trip to the schedule on July 17th. The Gulfstar will be fishing for big American Reds, Gags, Mangove and Mutton Snapper in some deeper water, between 160 and 250 feet. The fare will be $520 and include all rods reels, tackle, meals, snacks and beverages.

Middle Grounds Report

Capt Jerry and Capt Dave reported an excellent first drop on this weekends Middle Grounds trip, calling it a Mangrove Snapper Bonanza!

The rest of the trip was a steady pick of gag grouper, red and strawberry grouper. Nice looking American Red Snapper, Mangroves, BLiners Porgies, Amberjacks and King Mackerel. Unfortunately, there were some very nice fish lost, but not from lack of trying! Good job, everyone! Photos in the gallery.

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IRON MAN TRIP

The Gulfstar left last Monday and returned on Thursday afternoon from another fantastic deepwater trip. Capt. Rich did another great job of putting the 10 anglers on a huge variety of deepwater species. Check out the Queen Snapper, Kitty Mitchell, Scamp, Yellow Edge Grouper, Mutton Snapper, Yellow Tail Snapper, Mahi, Gag Grouper, American Red Snapper, porgies and more in the photo gallery.

It was another turn and burn week for Capt. Rich and the Crew. After scrubbing up from the 60 Hour trip, the Gulfstar headed back out to the Middle Grounds. A group from Gainesville, FL chartered the boat for a 44 Hour, due back tomorrow at 4pm. Look for more pics and a report from Capt Rich.

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44 Hour Report from Capt. George

The Gulfstar left Friday night with a sold out trip with everyone having visions of hand caught fresh gulf fish dinners. All were rewarded with a quality and quantity catch.

Leaving the dock 15 minutes early, the weather was actually perfect the whole weekend with 1 to 2 foot seas and light winds making the heat bearable. The Gulfstar made a great platform for a very good trip.

The first stop at 3:30am was a beat down of mangos, pink porgies, b-liners and red grouper. With the moon overhead at 5:30am on stop two, some very nice gags and American red snappers showed and tested the skills of some anglers. While some had a slow start, they all caught up in the closing hours of a great trip. An added bonus to the catch was a couple dozen mahi, several kingfish up to 30lbs, gags up to 25lbs, mangos to 6lbs, red grouper to 15lbs, American reds to 18lbs and b-liners to 4lbs. A 7 foot lemon shark ate a hundred or so pounds of fish before he also was caught and then released.

Congrats to the pool winners! John Hendry won the snapper pool, Grayson Stack took the AJ pool and Jason Hedman won with a nice grouper.

The Gulfstar will be cleaning up and heading out on the 60 Hour Iron Man trip tomorrow night at 8pm. There are two spots available, so if you are interested, call Lisa in the office asap.

The Gulfstar had a fantastic Half Day trip yesterday! Today we are fishing with Hernando Fishing Club and expect some great grouper and snapper fishing. The weather is cooperating, lets see if the fish do!

REPORT FROM CAPT RICH - 4 DAY PELAGIC TRIP

With a forecast for perfect weather, Captain Rich and the crew were very anxious to get out to the deep loop current for the first time this season. All the passengers checked in early allowing us to leave the dock two hours ahead of schedule. The fist planned drop was 177 miles offshore, and with a perfect ride out weather wise, the passengers were able to enjoy a few movies and retire comfortably to their bunks.

At first light Chef Allen whipped up a fantastic breakfast while the mates Keith and Sean started setting out the trolling spread. After setting the lures just right in the water, we caught two wahoos, followed by several mahis and barracudas. Later that afternoon we did a drop for the deep water grouper catching snowy groupers up to 18 pounds, smaller than usual, but not bad. As the sun started to get low we needed to move into swordfish territory. We drifted for swords all night, with a few mystery bites and a couple large mahi.

The next morning we put out the trolling spread and trolled to an area about 60 miles away that Captain Rich wanted to investigate. Along the way we caught several more Mahis, Barracuda and a few yellowfin and blackfin tuna. As sundown approached we started swordfishing again. Immediately we caught several large sharks, up to 12 feet long, and even had a 15 foot tiger shark circling the boat. Surprisingly the Tiger shark was not interested in the two large Mahis we were reeling in. During the course of the night we had several mystery bites, until finally we hooked one that definitely appeared to be the mighty sword. The Angler was Paul and after a 45 minute battle Capt Rich and the crew gaffed and landed the Swordfish. The rest of the drift was uneventful.

After sunrise we started trolling again and made our way to some 500-600 foot drops which produced deepwater grouper and porgies. We then trolled back off shore for more swordfishing and ended up with 2 more sword, several mahi and sharks. Photos will follow shortly. All in all we had awesome weather, good fishing and a great time. Looking forward to our next pelagic trip in July!!

MIDDLE GROUNDS REPORT

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Last Fridays 44 Hour Middle Grounds trip was a full boat of 27 passengers. Capt. Jerry and I flipped a coin as to the direction of the Viking Star, which was a heads up, by the way. Many think we use experience and our vast knowledge to find fish every on every trip, ha ha. Heads and tails have caught more fish then anybody !!!

The first drop was at 3am, it produced very little for the box, same till 5:30am. The first real bite of the trip began with a couple gags and very nice above average mangos making their way to the coolers. After daybreak the sea laid down, but so did the bite. After breakfast we started the painful seek and hunt with a slow bite thru the day. Saturday night was a better than average pick with several gags and red grouper, with hefty bee liners, mangos, porgies and kingfish showing up.

Again, NMFS needs to come out with us to see the red snapper are alive and well. No need for an obituary notice on them yet, as many were vented and released.

With the long ride to the fish, our last stop found us at a wreck or spring on Sunday morning, for some AJs and grouper action. We were not disappointed, with many AJs and a couple gags.

Thanks to all that endured and enjoyed another great trip to the Florida Middle Grounds.

Capt. George

Capt. Jerry

Well, this trip was at the least one for the book. A late departure was needed since there no water to leave the dock at 8pm. The departure at 10pm had us to the first drop at 5:30am.

Mangos were the first to visit the deck with a solid 1hr bite, as well as porgys, beeliners and a few red groupers; a very good first drop. The rest of the trip was pick and move to get a good trip together.

Some very nice fish hit the deck despite the loss of all the live bait. By the end of Sat the near extinct red snapper made its presence. In the last 3 trips to the grounds just the Viking Star alone, has vented and released over TWO THOUSAND RED SNAPPER. Is the NMFS paying attention?

A group of anglers fishing forward starboard came up with three very nice scamps 22in to 31in, very nice. Sundays last stop produced some fast AJ action to close the trip. The 7 plus hour ride to the barn gets us back at 5:30pm. Overall even with the weather and the loss of live bait, we put together a very good trip. Lots of fish at the dock and happy anglers. Captain George

GULFSTAR REPORT This past weekend we had decent weather and fishingon the Gulfstar. The guys from Carrollwood Baptist Church fished with us Saturday on a half day trip. The catch was Key west snappers, porgies, seabass and a few spanish mackerel. They also caught and released loads of undersized grouper.

Sundays trip gave the anglers even better fishing, the action was for the most part, non stop. The selection of fish was the same as Saturday's catch with the added bounus of a Hog fish

Great Middle Grounds Report from Capt. George

Tues, April 21

The departure of the 8pm Middle Grounds trip with 21 passengers was on the books. After a mandatory speech of safety and fish rules, the long ride to the grounds began.

By 3:30 am lines were in, and started a very long night of picking a few here and there. Some nice mangos in the 6 and 7lb range were picked throughout the weekend, along with gags and red grouper. No huge grouper, but many in the 10 to 15lb range. Several first timers to the grounds were content with chicken rigs, loaded with porgies and beeliners.

Steady is the best description for the entire trip with not one stop out producing the other. The only constant was NOAAs ability to provide another wrong forecast. We made over 50 drops this trip to keep bent rods. Whatever the reason, it has not been on fire yet, but when it happens we will let you know.

All day Saturday we picked mangos, gags, red grouper, some of the biggest grunt's I have seen offshore. Some getting up to 3 lbs, plus a few nice lane snappers. Saturdays dinner by Chef Allen included a fresh venison ham and pulled pork. Sundown till midnight we picked a good amount. The weather finally laid down 1am Sunday till 6am which made the rail comfortable for a welcome change. With the surface temp at 68 degrees it was odd to see mahi mahi chasing bait in the lights, and then came Flipper, who brought his posse with him, getting no less then 20 fish from us.

We fired up and made a ten mile run to the north to play with some AJs. At least they got the memo that we were coming, and they were hungry! 15 Ajs over 40lbs hit the deck, with a few smaller models in the box and a few more gags. Lines up was called by Capt Jerry and a 7hr ride to the dock followed.

Congrats to Peter Eidenberg for winning the grouper pool, Patrick Tara won with a nice AJ and Bill Meyers turned in a nice big snapper. Thanks to all the folks that fished with us and endured the slow but steady pick all weekend.

Capt George

14 Hour Night Fishing Report from Capt. Rich

Saturday, April 18

With a full boat of anxious anglers we departed at 8pm and headed offshore on a 14hr night trip. We steamed a few minutes over 3 hrs to 145 ft of water. The ride out was nice with flat calm seas and the first drop rewarded us with lots of variety, like Gag grouper, lane, mangrove, vermillion, yellowtail snapper, red porgies, key west grunts and a few bar jacks. We also released loads of undersized red grouper and many sharks.

Just after 1am the wind came on out of the southeast and changed the whole game for us. The boat swung with the wind moving us off the spot so we picked up anchor and started toward the next spot less than one mile away. It was lock and load fishing! Red snapper after red snapper coming over the rail, WOW right??? Wrong is the National Marine Fisheries service and other assorted lobbyist groups have proceeded to shorten the season year after year by saying these fish are being over fished. Anyway, the crew and I were very busy venting and releasing the red snapper with care. We stayed there for about 15 minutes waiting for the grouper to start, but the anglers could not get bait past the red snapper so we decided to move on. Just as I blurted out lines up, an angler on the bow nailed a fat gag grouper.

With the weather getting worse I wanted to hit as many spots as we could before it got too bad so we hauled anchor and went off. The next few spots gave us assorted snapper and porgy action and plenty of sharks. By 6:30am the seas we pretty nasty and it was definitely time to get home. The ride home was not like the ride out it was much bumpier and much longer.

Overall we put a decent catch together and had loads of action. I do believe if the weather had cooperated with us a few more hrs we would have had a slammer trip. The American Red Snapper season opens June 1, 2009 and I can’t wait!!!!

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Trip Added...we've been getting alot of phone calls about Half Day fishing next Saturday, April 25. Capt Rich just added a special morning trip, departing at 6:30am and returning at 11:30am.

Half Day trips are scheduled everyday from now through the end of April. We are still taking reservations for the 44 Hour Middle Grounds trips scheduled throughout the summer. Make your reservations online or by calling our office at 727-938-5300.

Half Day fishing trips depart at 11AM and returning at 4PM. The cost is $55 per person and only $25 for kids under 12. The fare includes rod and reel, bait and all tackle. Pack a lunch and drinks since the galley will not be open. We have everything else! Reservations are recommended.

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Capt Rich reported a very slow day of fishing today. Yesterdays storm came through with a vengance and stirred up the water, which caused the fish to not bite so well. With the weather getting better, we are hoping for a better day tommorrow. Walk ons are welcome Thursday morning.

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Another great day of fishing today! The Viking Star saw lots of action, great weather and lots of kids fishing for the first time. Even Viking mascots Buddy and Spinner had fun stealing sandwiches and bait!

Half Day Report! Capt Rich reported that yesterdays Half Day trip provided the Gulfstar with plenty of action. The fish were very hungry and were biting instantly. The three stops of the day provided a bunch of nice Mangrove Snappers, Key West Grunts, and Black sea bass, Porgies, and short Grouper and some Spanish mackerel. Greg from Polk County also released a Black tip shark. There was a southerly breeze yesterday making it a bit uncomfortable but the fish and the anglers did not seem to mind. Capt Rich is back at it today, this time on the Viking Star. The weather report looks awesome!

The 44 hour grouper re-opener was a much anticipated trip, with the weather outlook good, we left the dock with many anxious anglers. With a wicked spring cold front earlier in the week, there was a swell still lingering on Friday night, which made for a bumpy ride out. The swell led to a slow start at our first couple drops. By first light we had calm seas and a good charge of red grouper. As the day progressed the action continued to get better and better.

At sundown there was a quick flurry of red and gag grouper, followed by a slaughtering of B-liners up to 5 lbs and Mangoes up to 8 lbs. By midnight the bite slowed down and Captain Jerry went searching, stopping at various spots which yielded a slow pick. As daylight appeared, the Amberjack and the grouper bite turned on. With the intense action everybody was able to top off the boat’s fish hold for the last couple hours.

Captain Jerry hit several wrecks on the way back in, the last one being the most successful. Overall, it was a good trip with plenty of action. Even some of the exotic species came over the rail, namely hound fish and trumpet fish…looking forward to the next one!

LASTEST GULFSTAR REPORT: After the weather huffed and puffed all week, it finally backed off on Fri. afternoon. The Keystone Bible Church chartered the Gulf star for a half day on Saturday. The weather was awesome and the fishing good. They had lots of grouper and snapper action and mixed in were some Spanish mackerel.

On Sat night the Gulf star ran offshore on a 14 hr night trip again the weather was great but the fishing was pretty slow. The first stop was a wreck in 90 ft of water. There were hundreds of Amberjack swimming on the waters surface but not a one would eat anything we tried every bait, plug, jig we could think of but the Jacks simply would not eat. The American Red snapper on the other hand were extremely hungry we caught probably 200 hundred of them, the season is closed for them and our anglers released them with care. We did manage to get some Mangrove snapper and grouper we could keep off the wreck before we made a move. We made a bunch of stops that night with some spots catching nothing and some giving us a few keeper grouper and snapper. We did catch lots of short Grouper on most stops. The anglers tried very hard all night and seemed to have a good time while I pulled out the little hair I have left trying to find some fish that were hungry.

In the last few months I have been noticing a change in people it seems that the quantity of fish is being dwarfed by quality of time and the importance of enjoying life with the ones you love. Maybe it has something to do with the economy maybe not, who cares? The world is a much nicer place when everybody is smiling.

Capt Rich

OPENING DAY! Capt. Rich has added a 16 Hour Grouper Special to the schedule next week. The Gulfstar will depart on Wednesday, April 1 at 5am and return at 9pm. The cost is $185 per person, which includes rod and reel, frozen and live bait, all tackle plus meals and beverages.

The crew from yesterdays Half Day trip reported an awesome day! The anglers on board caught tons of Key West Snapper! They also had a mix of keeper size and short grouper, which were all released. The perfect weather helped make it another great trip.

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Capt. Jerry and Capt. George reported some very good fishing on yesterdays 24 Hour Snapper trip.

Capt. Jerry said that fishing was fast! The American Red Snapper catch and release became too many to count. They took over the bite and turned the mangrove bite right off.

The anglers on board the Viking Star caught and released over 80 gag groupers, 30 of which were keeper size. Capt. George reported an awesome AJ bite and that the porgys and b liners were biting pretty well too.

Congrats to the pool winners! Scott Myers took the grouper, Mike Bavis won snapper and Mike Boland took the AJ pool.

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Half Day Report

The Viking Star fished a Half Day trip yesterday. The 34 anglers had such a beautiful day on the water, they all agreed with Capt. Dave to stay out for an additional hour.

They caught tons of grunts, a few mangrove snapper and grey snappers. There were also lots of gag groupers thrown back and quite a few short red grouper. Beautiful weather, good fishing and a great group of passengers made for another successful trip aboard the Viking!

We will be offering Half Day trips everyday during February, except the 8 Hour All Day trip on Monday, Presidents Day, February 16. Reservations are required on all trips. Give us a call at the office 727-938-5300 with any questions.

We are expecting near perfect weather for this Saturday, February 7th on the Special 24 Hour Snapper trip! A light southern wind, seas 2 to 4 feet and temps in the 70s.

The cost is $265, this includes rod/reel, tackle, cut and live bait, meals, snacks and drinks. The boat will be leaving the dock at noon, so get your reservation in ASAP. 727 938 5300

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WALK ONS WELCOME! The Viking Star will be leaving tomorrow morning, Jan. 31 on the 20 Hour Crabtree Squeaker! Check in will begin at 3AM, departure at 4AM and will return at 11:59PM. The $250 fare includes all bait (cut and live), tackle, meals, snacks and beverages.

The Gulfstar will be fishing a Super Bowl Sunday Half Day trip on Feb 1. Departure time is 11AM and will return at 4PM, so you will be home before kickoff time. Reservations are required on all trips.

We will also offer Half Day trips Monday through Friday and a Special 24 Hour Snapper trip on Saturday, Feb 7. The cost is $265, this includes rod/reel, tackle, cut and live bait, meals, snacks and drinks. Get your reservation in ASAP. 727 938 5300

Capt. Jerry reported that this weekends 44 Hr Middle Grounds trip was a tough one. He said that Saturday morning showed some phenomenal mangos, red grouper and gags on the first drop; but once the front arrived the bite shut down.

Saturday night showed some nice size mangos, a few red grouper, some bee liners, and porgies but the gags were not biting at all.

Sunday morning brought a few more gag and red grouper, mangos and AJs.

The Gulfstar will fish a