Hey all. Been watching today on the forecast for a couple of days. It was perfect up until the forecast shifted on Monday morning. It was just as Monday’s forecast said, stacked up 3’s making for a really rough ride out. Laid down as the day went on. Not a bad ride back in.
Took Kut08 with me, my beautiful wife, and two girls who are daughters of friends of ours. They have always said they would love to try fishing and being my wife came along, seemed like the perfect opportunity to introduce them to offshore fishing.
Left the hill about 0530. Headed just about straight out the buoy’s, over Comanche, about 12 miles past towards the Outcrop. Hit about 150 - 160’ and put lines in. Found two patches of weeds. Nothing that was well put together, but enough to form a pattern in the water. Trolled along both sets and only scared up one cow. She put up a good fight. One of our guest teenagers brought her in. I was sure this was a big bull the way it fought and peeled off line. I was over her shoulder adjusting the drag like crazy trying to giver her an advantage. Ended up being about a 10 lb. cow. Stubborn fish.
Did that for about 3 hours with nothing else. Turned back towards the West, trolled for a bit more and saw something I’ve never seen before. We saw a huge commotion off our bow, probably a quarter mile or so. At first thought it was a Marlin. Then, out of the water pops a ray, a HUGE ray. White on the belly, dark on top. It could have been a couple of them, not sure, but the last one came clear out of the water. Super cool to see.
Headed towards the Garden Area to see if I couldn’t put the girls onto some bottom fish since I was not doing the job trolling. Set up over the Gardens, drifted and caught the usual suspects. Even picked up a Lizard Fish. A first for me. My wife got to reel in a nice sized shark. Since nothing we were catching had any real value to it and gas was getting low we headed in.
As we approached the first marker for the channel, you know the single
Any day on the water with family is a great day in my book! Seen those algae plumes before as well, mostly offshore a bit, tend to occur when water gets above certain temp, definitly allmost looks like a oil slick. Allways amazing when He blesses us with something we have never seen before!
Russ B. Formerly known here as “Top2Bottom1” www.joinrfa.org
God is great, Beer is good, People are crazy
Just having the ability to have a boat, get out on the ocean, catch some fish, enjoy sights most don’t ever get to see . . . . that’s why my boat is named what it is, because I truly am Russ.
When I tried typing in the word, my Mac underlined it. That’s what the spell check went to. I’m a terrible speller so I just went with it. I have no idea, but you’re probably right. Thanks for keeping me honest on the spelling.
Haha no problem. At least it’s not the bad kind of bloom–cynobacteria, or the “red tide”. This can turn the water blood red for miles and kill everything in the water–Google it and check it out.
Saw the same Algae Bloom last week on Tuesday running straight out to the Comanche. Really unusual, looked similar to something like an oil slick( Didnt smell like oil though). I investigated as you did and determined it was some sort of algae. When i crossed it it had to be about a half mile wide and who knows how long. Thanks for the info, as I might run out tomorrow morning. Looks like I’ll be running more south.
I don’t think so skinee. When you looked at it just floating in the water it looked like little football shaped grains. But they smeared when touched, so they weren’t solid. I would expect pollen to be more cloudy, not so grainy.
Well, having never seen anything like that before and given there were three big ships right in the immediate area, better to call and look stupid, than not to call and have it be the next Valdez. The Coasties were extremely appreciative of the call and said from their stand point it was the right move.
I actually was thinking the whole time on the radio, “These guys are probably laughing at me between mic button presses.” Ya know, calling their buddies over from other rooms, “Hey Jim, guess what this guy is calling in . . . BWAHH HA HA HA HA!!!”
Again, third season with my boat . . . . no, never seen an oil spill and I didn’t think it was an oil spill, but also had no idea what it was. Why not make a call and look stupid, than not make one when it was actually something.
