Started the day trolling and had a solid bite in the morning with a knockdown every ten minutes. The problem was most were massive little tuny or barracuda. Stopped trolling at noon the day with 5 dolphin and wahoo. From the chatter on the radio we were on par with the rest of the fleet.
After that we went in and dove some areas looking for cobia. While we were getting ready we had one follow a hooked amberjack to the boat but we couldn’t hook up on the bucktail jig or the free-gaff. Only saw one cobia during out dives but the visibility was awesome considering we just got hit by a tropical storm. I could see the hull from about 80’ but the last 20’ was still pretty snotty. Getting a hogfish on an artificial reef was also a nice surprise.
Wrapped up the day with some bottom fishing and put plenty of triggers, bsb, and vermillion into the boat to round out the mixed bag. Even got a good gag grouper on a chicken rig. We had several good cobia on chicken rigs but they were too strong for our gear and kept cutting us off on structure.
Found a large aircraft carrier while trolling the ledge and we enjoyed the free airshow with F18s flying in formation and a fleet of helicopters either practicing search and rescue or anti-submarine warfare. At one point we found some BLUE water in a small patch and it had to be a dye pack that they dropped. Did manage get a knock down trolling by it. There was also a large destroyer following the carrier about 8 miles back.
Forgot to add, I killed quite a few chicken sized lionfish on some artificial structure. Completely cleared out one area so it will be interesting to see if they come back in a few weeks. The BSB were starting to peck at the deadest ones when we were leaving.
Might be a little hard to see. Look in the middle of the picture.
love watching flight ops! Heading to Norfolk next week as my cousin Captain Andy Loiselle takes command of the carrier George W. Bush! Getting a private tour or the carrier…very stoked about that!
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NMFS = No More Fishing Season
“Back home we got a taxidermy man. He gonna have a heart attack when he see what I brung him”
they were all over us yesterday. There was also a destroyer behind the carrier. Seems the helicopeters where out checking all the boats out. Had a few fly bys. pretty cool for 50 miles offshore. Lots of activity.
I know I know. Normally I take lots more pictures but this time I was being lazy and I generally don’t keep the camera handy on days that overcast and gloomy. Off and on rain at the ledge with a big storm system to the south. Top 80’ in the water was dark but very blue. Bottom 30’ was green and snotty and pictures generally don’t work out well in that so I left the camera. We usually drop a video cam down to check out viz before we dive so we know what to bring.
If we use the gopro, it has an LCD accessory on the back and you can play it back when you get it back on the boat. For shallower water, capt Greg (MissEmily) has an infra-red camera shaped like a fish that has a live feed back to a monitor. The problem with that one is that the seabass go ballistic on it and it’s hard to see much other than seabass mouth.
