Another Wednesday afternoon adventure on the PainKiller. My two older kids joined us as school is now out for the summer - my dad drove up, my childhood friend Mike flew in from Florida, and my local friend Mike, and Capt Jay rounded out the crew.
Based upon the hit or miss slow trolling reports from friends, our plan was to hit the bottom first then troll for the late afternoon bite. Capt Jay and Florida Mike caught live pinfish while waiting for me to finish my half day in the office. Off to the Scarp we ran. A bit sloppier than predicted, and slower due to dads frequent restroom breaks (joys of aging - I won’t make any jokes as all of the bald jokes I made came back to haunt me) - we arrived around 1pm.
Live pinfish were like candy to the big fish. We found a nice piece of bottom outside of the MPA and it was game on! Scamps, strawberry grouper, reef donkeys galore. We had a fun time reeling in from near 200 feet! The biggest scamp had to be over 20 pounds. Plenty of freight trained break offs. Florida Mike showed us how to ‘banjo strum’ the line to get the fish out of the rocks - sure enough it worked, once! The kids were getting bored, as they didn’t have the strength to pull up the big fish, so we started to troll.
One hour, one hour of NOTHING. Flying fish, scattered weeds, but no action. Radioed to a big sport fish on the horizon, also slow fishing. Back to bottom fishing.
We ran in to the Parking Lot - trying to get the kids on some BSBs. My dad offered each kid one dollar for each fish they catch. It was game on.
B-lines, Pinkies, Silver Snapper, Grunts, big BSB, one Genuine ARS, Atlantic Sharpnose Sharks, and a whole lot of action. Lainey ended up with $30, best her brothers $15. The seas got larger, and back to the hill we ran. The seas really picked up, making for a bouncy, wet ride home.
A great time was had by all! Fishing with friends and three generations is always good times!
Tight Lines,
Jason