After 4 months of downtime for surgery…my first trip back on the ocean in Oct. was followed by 2 months of $^&* weather! I was beginning to plan my pagan sacrifice to King Neptune when sailflow finally took a turn my way. Left out of James Island about 8am Friday am after somebody overslept and was half an hour late…good thing I was in charge of lunch:smiley: Ran south to the spot in 95’ and starting fishing. Slow morning with a killer current that kept us constantly resetting drift and even pulling the anchor when we went that route. Finally hit the water around 11 with 70 degree water top to bottom and 50’+ viz. A small coral head soon showed me why they call the man Bugcatcher in person. I couldn’t get away fast enough to keep from bagging his catch. Even tickled one monster out from a rock for me to grab and I wasn’t sure if I should bag him or put a saddle on him. Left a few more down there due to bottom time, but didn’t see the first grouper or have time to pluck at the triggers. Plan-B… back to the boat with a lessening current and start fishing. Squid down, trigger up. Squid down, trigger up. Squid down, 2 triggers up. Loaded the box with b-liners, triggers, and a cobia. Off to the next spot as the sun was starting to drop a bit and the second dive yielded another bag o’ bugs but no grouper??? No complaints as I was just glad to get out and brought home quite the selection of table fare.
After a delicious dinner of lobster legs I got my boat ready and took a nap before round 2. Sat. am I woke up on time and we were out where we wanted to be by 830. After a quick recon with the sounder and a GoPro Realfish01 and I went in. Hit a small wreck and have never seen so many legal grouper so we went to work. One up. Two up. Excellent teamwork. Then as we were circling the spot I nailed a pretty soli