30A Deep Dive: Fishing the Gulf of Mexico With Shane Reynolds

“Morning, 30A! Shane Reynolds here. It is 5:45 on the dot. We’re heading to the beach. We’re gonna do some snapper fishing today. 30A style.”

30A Deep Dive is an adventure series hosted by Shane Reynolds. Shane Reynolds is a professional adventure travel host who has been taking adventurous people on adventures in other lands for over 20 years. Now he’s exploring the wilds of Florida’s Emerald Coast and sharing his adventures with you.

In this episode, Shane meets up with Captain Scott Provow of Grayton Beach Charters, and his wife Leslie, to try some Snapper fishing in the Gulf of Mexico launching right off of Grayton Beach.

“I’ve fished out of Destin many, many times, but this is a new thing for me. This whole taking off from the beach, probably don’t have to go nearly as far out,” said Shane.

“You don’t. About three miles and we’ll be on reef,” Capt. Scott explained. “It’s crazy. If it’s flat and you can run 30 miles an hour you’ll be fishing in 10 minutes and catch a snapper or a grouper.”

“That’s incredible. It’s one of the few places in the world, I know I’ve done it in Alaska when you go salmon fishing up there. These are 19-foot Cape Horn made right here in Northwest Florida. And you’ll see almost everybody here, these are all the same type of boat, 19 feet,” said Shane.

In between reeling and catching some fish, the two get talking. “So how long have you been fishing?” asked Shane

“I got my captain’s license in ’08 but I started fishing down here in ’94. Married Leslie in ’79, a local Grayton Beach gal, and her family knew some people here. So I had a buddy that I linked up with in 1994, Edmond Alexander, and he taught me the water. I fished the 17 Cape Horn from ’04 to about 2010. Got my captain’s license in ’08 then I switched to a 19-foot,” said Capt. Scott.

“The Tailhooker, where’d you get that name?” asked Shane.

“I’d always wanted to name a boat after our Navy days so we named it the Tailhooker and we got the Naval aviation Tailhook symbol on the side of the boat. We modified the Tailhook to a fish hook if you look at it. And instead of a picture of a carrier it has a picture of my Cape Horn. So we got a good show of fish on the sonar right now. Just trying to get ’em to hook up,” said Capt. Scott.

Amidst the banter and waiting for the first big 10-pounder to show up, Shane catches a lane snapper and a black snapper.

Shane asked Captain if he has seen a big change over the years when it comes to fishing.

“You know, tons more sharks than we ever have ever had. The limits have gone, said Capt. Scott. “We used to be able to keep eight fish a piece, then it went to four and the season was open basically from April 1st to October 31st. And now the season is 45 days and it’s two fish apiece. So obviously Fish and wildlife is thinking that it’s overfished, otherwise, they wouldn’t shorten the season and shorten the limits,” he explained.

As if on cue, Leslie reels in a big one – an 18-ft stud snapper!

“That’ll feed us all. Way to put us on the fish, Cap. I’m just happy I got a fish in the boat. Sometimes you come out and you’re just contributing. You know, everybody wants the biggest fish on the boat but today’s a day of variety. We got all kinds of different snappers and you know it’s always a good day of fishing especially when you got fish in the boat. I’m just glad I got one in. And we have a stud so we’ll be eating some nice fresh fish tonight,” signed off Shane.