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Often called “head boats,” these large and spacious vessels offer considerably less expensive passage than charter boats. On the Florida Coast, many carry large numbers of anglers offshore to bottom fishing Valhallas.  There is a great variety of trips that range from four hours to four days, or more.  

Recently, I had the opportunity to journey into the Gulf of Mexico on one of these massive vessels. Just about the time my orientation was complete, our skipper pulled down the four throttles. "Chhh, chhh," went the air-pressured controls. The vessel perceptibly slowed down, and here we were already 18 miles offshore. The skipper idled the huge hotel-sized vessel around the area, looking on his depth sonar machine for fish.

I was fortunate enough to be invited into the wheelhouse to observe the process. The large display Colorscope produced an image of the bottom, beginning its colorful travel from left to right. After a few minutes, what looked like a bit of structure began to emerge on the screen. Some healthy-sized yellow clumps appeared close to the bottom line.  

Swinging back around, the skipper maneuvered the craft in a 180-degree turn. As we crossed the GPS coordinates again, the yellow clumps on the bottom were larger, with big dots of red inside. This was definitely a good "show of fish," he said. “And, with that tell-tale red center, it was most likely a stack of grouper.”  

I was surprised that the skipper did not mark the spot with a buoy, but instead noted the coordinates and aimed the vessel in a proper anchor heading. At the very moment the Captain was ready to drop anchor, the mate materialized at the bow pulpit. With a brief hand signal from our skipper, he released the huge anchor. 

Paying out a generous amount of anchor line, the 115-foot vessel was slowly eased back until that huge stack of fish materialized on the color scope. But wait, the anchor line still had not stretched out completely, and the big vessel slid back a bit too far. Not a problem. Just a slight touch of throttles, plus a few quick turns of the windlass, and we were settled in back over a giant show of what appeared to be a school of large grouper. 

The cups of bait goodies, which included pieces of cut squid and frozen Spanish sardines, were passed out. All aboard the vessel had their loaner rods over the rail the instant the engines were shut down.  

Since there wasn't a big crowd aboard, the 100-plus fishing spots offered roomy luxury to the assembled anglers. The only place folks crowded each other was on the stern. I don’t know why, but there seems to be a special mystique about fishing the stern of any headboat. I believe that most party boat aficionados have a notion that "the skipper always puts the stern over fish." Actually, this might not be accurate. Most captains will tell you that they conscientiously attempt to place as many of the anglers over fish as possible. 

There are other more plausible reasons why aft appears to be the fishing spot of choice. Since "regulars” or the more experienced generally work the stern, they invariably will do the best at catching fish. Most of these party boat veterans know all the effective techniques for hooking those bottom dwellers.  More often than not, these hard core partyboaters bring live wells laden with frisky pinfish, which also increases their success rate. There's another bit of logic here as well. Because the boat is invariably anchored up current, a lot of the bait drifts back and, in essence, chums the fish back to the stern. 

All these excuses aside, however, I have been out on party boats fishing way up on the bow, and pulled up some healthy lunkers.  

Now there’s also another phenomenon that takes place aboard these massive fishing vessels. The moment someone starts catching nice fish on the bow, or anywhere else on the party boat, as if by magic, the veterans from the stern suddenly appear right beside those anglers.

This day, the more experienced party boat fishermen deftly flipped their baits a good distance off the rail. I have yet to hear a logical reason why they do this, if the fish are straight down. However, most will tell you that the bait is cast up current they eventually wind up straight down below. I have caught fish both ways. 

Smaller hooks, about 5/0 Mustads on leaders rigged with heavy, 2-ounce leads were the rigs provided. Many of the more experienced anger brought their own tackle and generally speaking, did somewhat better with that tackle than the party boat rods. 

The smallish hooks make it possible to snare a generous helping of other species including black sea bass, mangrove snapper and Key West grunts while waiting for the grouper to begin feeding. 

After a half-hour or so of fishing, it was obvious that on this day the grouper had a “mild case of lockjaw.”   So the skipper rang the bell and all aboard cranked up the lines, ready to make the move to what we hoped would be a more productive spot. 

Cruising 20-minutes to our next drop, the vessel slowed and the skipper briefly surveyed the bottom contour with his Colorscope. At last, it was time to set the anchor. All aboard were like coiled springs, ready to go into action the moment they heard the “ding-ding" of the time-to-fish bell. 

A couple of truck drivers from Detroit, fishing beside me, dropped their bait down into the blue depths below. The moment their sinkers hit the bottom, each of these 18-wheeler jockeys had a powerful grouper strike. 

"Don't pump it,” cautioned the mates, who appeared soon as fish were being cranked.

There now was a good bend on both rods, as the pair of truck drivers savored an intense pull from the powerful fish below.  

At last, we could see the outline of what they were reeling in. Somehow, the fish didn't look like a grouper. Yet, it pulled with great determination. "Those are some huge big 'mangos' (mangrove snapper) shouted the Captain from the upper deck perch. The mate was right there with a gaff hook. "Step back," he ordered. As the elated trucker took a step or two back, the mate skillfully reached down and gaffed each fish onto the deck. Then, just few minutes later, a nice 10-pound gag grouper was slipped over the rail by a man on the bow.

As a few more grouper, plus several “throwbacks" were caught, the captain began to relax. More than anyone else, the skipper wants to see a successful fishing day for all aboard. Along with these grouper, there was a fine assortment of other bottom species to fill up the fish box.  

When that last bell rang, we all put up our rods and sat back for the pleasant cruise back to the dock.

Warmed by our productive fishing adventure and the beautiful Florida day, one of the anglers couldn’t help but ask that trite, time worn question, “I wonder what the poor people are doing today?” Virtually all the rest of us chimed in, “we’re having a great day of fishing.