Left the dock at 11am, one friend from Florida drove up to fish, one friend from New Jersey drove down to fish, Jimmy, Rob, and Capt Jay rounding out the crew.
We planned to bottom fish first, then troll as the noonish hour has always been slow for dragging baits for us. Hitting the Parking Lot first, we easily hit our five man limit of grouper-sized BSB, with a few other assorted fish. We were hoping to see a cruising Mahi or two, but found sharpnose sharks and a large cuda circling the boat for scraps.
The ocean was tea colored, occasional weed, little fliers at the Parking Lot.
Off to the scarp, lines in at 2:30, and nothing happened. Checked baits after 30 minutes, two short strikes happened without popping the clips? Not marking any bait, not seeing any weedlines, ocean temp remained at 80.5 the entire ride - from the dock to the ledge.
Trolled just outside of the MPA and resumed our bottom fishing at 4:00. We recovered from the first round, and decided to drop in 180 feet for something other than BSB.
Mikey reels in the first rod bender - another BSB? in 180 ft?
Then SCAMP, SCAMP, SCAMP, silver snappers, jolt heads, b-liners and the other assorted dwellers found their way to the box. We could have done without the three pound scorpion fish, but he did add some intellectual excitement.
The solo bull mahi swam to the boat and Mikey made quick work of getting him in to the box - first hooked, fish jumped and spit the plug, then re hooked and boated!
Great afternoon on the water with childhood friends -
Tight Lines,
Jason
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