We left out of Georgetown on Saturday morning after day light with 3 of us on board the Miss Ella Pearl for some bottom fishing. Fog was so thick you couldnt see much past the bow of the boat. We headed out slowly and a Tug calls and tells us a barge is on the way in. Its getting fun already.
About half way out of the bay the fog breaks and there is the tug as we pick up the pace to head to our first secret spot. Which definitely held true as we never saw another boat come within visible range at that spot and we fished it most of the day. It was like riding across a pond and it was all I could do to try and keep it at 29 knots as she really wanted to hammer down but there were 2 days of fishing ahead so I decided to conserve a little fuel.
We get to the spot and see some great marks on the bottom machine and start to drop. Wouldnt you know it that the first fish is a nice ARS…a sign to how our day would be. We pulled in so many fish we didnt remember to take any pictures because we were so busy fishing. First spot summary:
- 10 ARS caught and released in great health
- BSBs - far too many to have kept a count
- Several grunts
- 1 Gag
- Porgys too many to count
- Some B-liners
- 10-12 sharks (lost count)
- Usual non keeper bottom dwellers
We finally got sick of catching sharks and decided to pull up and head about 8 miles further out to try another spot. Started marking fish immediately and dropped. Another good spot but not quite as productive as number 1 but we had only a little time. Summary:
- 1 scamp
- BSBs - far too many to have kept a count
- Several grunts
- Some B-liners
- 1 small tilefish caught and released
- Usual non keeper bottom dwellers
In the end we released a lot of fish and only brought back 18 to clean. Even though we didnt get as much meat as we wanted it