Fishing with Capt. Ray

Capt. Ray is one of our most requested guides.  Over the past few months, Ray has been spending a lot of time at home taking care of his wife who has been on a tough journey.   He hasn't had much time to get out on the water, but we were able to arrange for him to ride along as a "Capt. for Hire" with one of our good customers on their own boat.   This is not something that we typically offer, but it worked out this time.   

From Lance---

"I meant to send you a note yesterday, but didn't get the chance to do so. We had a GREAT time with Capt. Ray, he called me to discuss the weather forecast for Friday and we agreed ......go out on Saturday. It was an amazing experience for us.   We stopped to fish for blues to be used as live bait, then stopped along the way out to catch a couple of False Albacore as they boiled up literally right in front of the boat (Ashley caught a toad and of course mine was smaller! :-) ) We kept both for use as bottom bait later on in the day.  Then we headed off to the N.W. Places to set up for the Kings. 

As you know, I'm full of questions, but mostly because I want to learn. Ray was very open with his knowledge as we set up a two dead bait and two live bait spread (key learning #1). We stopped at NW #1 first, but we quickly moved on to NW #3 because the water was a bit cold (key learning #2) and he didn't like the lack of bait on the chart plotter. We weren't at NW#3 long when we had our first bite (followed by two more bites) as we trolled the edge of the shelf (key learning #3). An awesome sound hearing the bait clicker scream with a smoker king!

We then moved out to the 10 fathom rock and started bottom fishing. Ray talked about what he was seeing on the bottom machine and helped me understand why he was fishing the ledge (key learning #4). We were searching for a grouper... We ended up with a good fish box of black sea bass, vermillion snapper, triggers, ring tails and one run on a grouper but he rocked us really quickly!

I really feel for Ray and what he and his family are going through. It was evident to me they have accepted the outcome, but are embracing each and every day they have together and it sounds like Kris is making plans for Christmas, which is the family's one wish is to have another Christmas together. To me, Ray seems to be a great man, something we can all aspire to be!

Thank you for setting up the day with Ray! He is a great Captain and an awesome guy!"

---Lance