When Jon West called me and asked if I was interested in taking Les Claypool and Primus out fishing with us,...hmm...Frizzle Fry, Sailing the Seas of Cheese, Pork Soda..the list goes on, I thought ...no brainer! Jon's desire to fish with, and possibly write about avid angler Les Claypool, coupled with his contact with Primus manager, Brad Sands, landed us the opportunity to put on a show for the band....Jawbreaker fishing style!.. Joining us on this trip was photographer, Sean Deren, and my nephew, Kevin Barry, mate in training.
Fishing with Les Claypool, Jay Lane(drummer) and Primus band manager, Brad Sands, was almost like any other fishing charter that we take out of St.Pete Beach, Florida,...except, this wasn't a charter. Jon and I have been fishing hard and working like dogs lately and we needed a day off, to go fishing. Primus had the day off too! Their tour, promoting the new upcoming CD, 'Green Naugahide', put them in Clearwater for their day off. A short ride to St.Pete Beach put the band on the boat by 1pm, and we were on our way out to some offshore action.
Sometimes the afternoon bite can be tough offshore, especially in the warmer months. Not today! As soon as we deployed an arsenal of live baits into the spread and made one pass over the Betty Rose Wreck....Fish On!!... Jay Lane, on his first ever offshore fishing charter in the Gulf of Mexico, reeled in a hefty Gag Grouper. While we took pictures of Jay and his catch, the flatline took off and Brad brought in the first Barracuda of the day. Check him out(left) with Les, Jay and a toothy Florida Barracuda, tight work guys!!..We caught several Barracuda and Spanish mackerel for the smoker as well.
As stated before, Jon West is the writer, and hopefully soon we will be reading his stories of the day's events more in depth, but, a few quick notable moments.....1. Jon's perfect throw of a 12ft. Castnet filled both livewells with Shad, sweet! 2. We hooked a huge Goliath Grouper and gave Jay Lane a bigger fight than he was expecting. 3. Les Claypool catches a 20+ pound Gag Grouper on the Lima-glass rod. 4. Everyone catches a Barracuda on this trip, Les caught the biggest, 35#'s+. 5. Hooked a 'peanut-size' Mahi-Mahi which spit the hook while we watched him get eaten by a big Barracuda. 6. 8-foot Hammerhead followed our biggest Barracuda to the boat...everyone jumped back, except the photo guy, Sean Deren. Nice work Sean. 7. Hose clamp failure caused alarm for band manager, Brad, and myself...on the way home at 7:30pm. Luckily, a quick fix got the band home on time, and I slept much better that night. 8. I smoked about 15 pounds of fresh fish for the band, Christina West made Shrimp and Grits, Cornbread and Sausage, and we fed Primus right before the show at Ruth Eckerd Hall on Monday night.
That's it folks. I am beat, even 3 days later we are still “all a twitter” about this week's events. Call Jawbreaker fishing charters and experience the chance of a lifetime to fish for the memory of your life! Happy fishing to Ya. Capt. Dan