Taking on some Bruisers!

​Had a postponed trip from Sunday wanting to get out offshore before heading back home. Today was the best of the available days and we decided to go ahead and run out. The group was used to fishing for bass and other freshwater fish out of ponds, and was looking for a fun time. Nothing screams more fun to me than some hard pulling reef donkeys (aka Amberjack).
We left punta rassa  at 7AM for our charter offshore Sanibel island.   First call of duty was to  pick up some live bait. A dozen or so blue runners, some pinfish and squirrel fish rounded out the livewell. The seas were a washing machine with some large swell and chop going all different directions. We pushed on out to our destination. We we're greated almost immediately by a small school of ajs. Fired in a live runner and it was game on. We had a ton of hookups today, but our landed fish ratio wasn't great. We went 3 for 15 on landed fish and had one other leader touch that came off at the boat. Some of the fish we're bruisers that got us back to the structure after long runs. Another straightened out an 8/0 2x strong circle hook. It was a very fun day and the guys were left with ultra sore and tired arms. Going to be hard for them to look at a Bass the same after that! 
The weather finally laid down for us for our run back in. We saw a handful of porpoises as well as a bunch of turtles, one of which was a giant leatherback. Always a cool site.