Jack's Grouper

I was sitting here this morning thinking about the days when I was still a Producer/Director and I remembered an old associate and friend of mine by the name of Jack Cosgrove. Jack was a cinematographer and an excellent audio technician as well. Any time I needed film shot for a client instead of videotape, I would call on Jack first.

Jack and I teamed up on many projects during my stint in the Tampa Bay, Florida area. Like myself, Jack loved the water and we shared a passion for fishing. Shortly after acquiring "Halcyon," I asked Jack to come down to Bahia Beach Marina in Ruskin, Florida so I could show her off to him. Ruskin is about twenty minutes south of Tampa on the Tampa side of Tampa Bay. I did a little rummaging and found some PICS that were taken that day.

Jack arrived and I gave him the tour of "Halcyon." I had mentioned fishing over the phone as an added attraction to get Jack to make the drive down. I could see his puzzlement as he asked if we were still going to take her out and wet a line that day.

You see, "Halcyon" was not made for fishing. It was a comfortable boat made to live on and was quite stately. No one would ever confuse her with a fishing vessel of any kind even though I had added rod holders to her stern on both sides. I fired up the twin 453 Detroit Diesel engines and told Jack to come aboard, as we were about to cast off.

In those days, you had to go out into the Gulf of Mexico many miles to hit a reef or rock outcropping that held what I had promised Jack we were going to catch. We were in search of the coveted grouper. I had learned a secret not many knew about and told Jack we were going to fish for grouper in the bay. He said he was just glad to be going along on a boat ride. He didn’t believe me that you could catch them there. On the way out, dolphin swimming through our wake entertained us.

We started trolling for the grouper on the edges of the ship’s channel while we were still in sight of the marina. I was up on the upper steering station; Jack was down on the deck in the stern watching the lines. Jack thought he was just going to have a nice ride and that was all, so he pulled out a folding chair and started to get comfortable. That's when it hit.

Well, Jack was so surprised that he nearly fell overboard getting out of that chair and to the bent rod. He started shouting to me and I slowed the boat down and got her into neutral while he fought the fish. As you can see from the picture, Jack landed the grouper and became an instant believer.

We spent the day leisurely plying Tampa Bay and came home with all the fish we needed. This is the sunset we enjoyed as we made it back to the marina.