By FRANK SARGEANT
of The Tampa Tribune

Captain Tommy Butler knew there were big bottom fish, and plenty of them, at the edge of the continental shelf about 100 miles off the shores of St Petersburg in the Gulf of Mexico. And he knew if he could get customers out there in speed and comfort, he could build a unique charter boat business.

The problem was no boat he had ever seen or owned could make the run fast enough, and at a fuel cost that would allow him to make a profit. So, being a nuts-and-bolts kind of guy, he built one.

The result is the “Realiity Check,” a 45-foot ocean-racing type hull, equipped with a pair of 350-horse turbo-charged Yanmar diesels running through MerCruiser outdrives.

The boat ran 63 mph on its first speed trial, fast enough to get out to the drop-off in under two hours on a flat, calm morning.

But it also ran fast enough to knock out his clients if a flying fish happened to jump aboard, a fairly frequent occurrence in pre-dawn runs. He added a “pod,” a stream-lined cabin with six high-backed aircraft type seats, and the boat was done.

Since then, it has been drawing rave reviews from most anglers who can scrape up the $1,200-a-day charter fee. (“Not that bad when you split it four ways and bring home a bunch of fish to eat,” Butler said.)

Butler said there’s basically an endless reef along the edge, running from just off Apalachicola to the Dry Tortugas near Key West, and there are monster grouper and snapper throughout “The fishing out there today is like it was out 20 miles 30 years ago,” he said. “It gets some pressure from the commercial long-liners, but it’s still a hundred times better than anything inshore.”

The typical day’s catch includes a half-dozen gags in the 30-pound range plus plenty more in the high teens and 20s. On top of that, his anglers bring in lots of red snapper, scamp, kitty mitchell and many other species. And when they tire of the bottom species, it’s necessary to make a drop only a few yards short of the bottom to get instant action on 40 to 60-pound amberjack.

Best baits are grunts, blue runners and pinfish, the bigger the better. And he insists on heavy gear. “There’s no point in bringing your 50-pound stuff out here,” he said. “You’ll break off all the biggest fish on that”.

Instead, he relies on 100-pound-test mono and 130-pound-test leader. The rods are solid glass with all the flex of a shovel handle, the hooks 10/0 Mustads. He uses from 6 to 10 ounces of weight to hit bottom, de-pending on current and depths, which range from 100 to 260 feet, where most of the best reef-fishing is found.

Butler said the fish bite all winter at the edge because the Gulf Loop Current flow-ing up out of the Caribbean keeps the water warm. But he said prime time for catch-ing the jumbo grouper is just around the corner. “I think our best bites are usu-ally in March for the gags.”

In fact, the bite might be a bit too good. Biologists with the National Marine Fisheries Service say that’s the time when the gags gather on the deep reefs to spawn, and excessive harvest by commercial fishermen is depleting the population in the area. There’s a plan to shut down the spring fishing, but it won’t go in place at least until the current spring passes.

“I can’t believe that I’m hurting the fishery out there, taking three or four fish off a number and then going 20 miles to my next spot,” Butler said. “I never hammer a spot, because I know that if I do, it’s not going to produce again for months. If I leave some big fish, there will be more big fish there in a few weeks.”

He’s not so sure about the long-liners, though, which stay out for many days and lay miles of hook-filled lines over the habitat day and night during the spawn.

“They not only catch a lot of fish, but they destroy the coral dragging those cables on top of it,” he charged.

Not that he’s averse to catching lots of fish; he started fishing offshore as a commercial hook-and-liner, and still runs “meat” trips when he has no charters. But he says he gets a real thrill from introducing anglers who have never imagined the action offshore to the tremendous productivity
here.

“The first time a 30-pounder jerks you down on your knees,” he said, “you know this is a whole different fishery.”