Started the morning getting some bait in the harbor before running out to an artifical reef, to spot check for action before venturing out to the ledge. Personally, I wanted to get to the ledge as quick as possible, and bypass the ‘black sea bass haven’ to target larger bottom dwellers.
Once at the artifical reef, the first few drops yielded nothing but healthy BSB. A fourth drop produced a Little Tunny, which was rigged and dragged around for a short period of time. Shortly there after we made a decision to push on off to the ledge.
Around 11:30 we had the first scamp grouper in the boat at around 14 lbs. After moving around a little bit, we had a run of 2 scamp and 2 Red Hinds. There was some juvenile AJ action mixed in the run. It was towards an end of a run that I noticed something approaching the boat. Next thing you know, there is a Dolphinfish hooked up on the drift line. Not too long after talking trash about how the bottom was lifeless despite what the sonar showing, I got hooked up again. For the next ten minutes there was several walking back and forth around the boat between myself and my buddy fighting the dolphinfish. I pull up another Scamp grouper, to reach my bag limit for the day by 2:30 pm.
We decided to move on last time as a shot in the dark. It wasn’t too long before we had another 2 scamp and Red Hind on the boat by the captain and crew.
After that the captain had a 15 minute fight with a 80lb. shark on spin tackle to end the day.
I really couldn’t of asked for a better day to start the snapper-grouper recreational fishing season.
Totals
6 Scamps (1 personal limit and 1 first time grouper catch)
3 Red Hind
1 Dolphinfish
