on purpose. Wanted to try a lot of things today- troll, jig, pop, fly the kite and slow troll some big mullet for wahoo.
The days crew was Pole Dancer, Eastbound and Ted. We left at 2:30 and ran to distant lands and tried the glow jigs in the dark. Could not find what I was looking for on the sounder and we started the day: 0 for 1
We set the trap a bit before sunup
We got the first bite around 7:30, a nice blackfin. We continued around for an hour with nothing else. Then lost another blackfin boat side as he spit the hook. A wahoo nearly dumped a 50 and then cut the 50# flouro, we could see it streaking across the surface from a distance, big fish. 1 for 3
About 9:30 the ocean came alive and as we trolled we had our poppers and stickbaits ready to go. A double header on casting plugs, both in the box. Good stuff
We continued to troll and look for the blackfin busting close enough to throw to.I got the first one on the popper and on many occasions they would give the best arial displays I’ve seen in some time. Sometimes they would hit the bait before it hit the water, Awesome stuff.
After staring at the sounder for the better part of the morning I was starting to see the difference between the AJ’s, bonita and blackfin. I decided to try the jig again and was rewarded with 2 fish on the jig.
We finished the day at around 1PM and moved to 90’ to ge
Looks like you had alot of company. How did the others do?
If you can’t fix it with a hammer, you’ve got an electrical problem.
Only five boats and 2 commercials(b-liners). One was a friend and I probably exchanged a bit to much info over the airwaves. Every boat had people on the bow throwing stuff by the time we left. I can’t speak for the other boats #'s as I don’t know. But the fact that we kept trying to stay out of the trolling lanes and out of the way b/c we were experimenting and the 3 other boats are in all the pictures may answer the question, but I honestly don’t know. I do know we were stoked to get what we did- how we did!
deff dont take the shower might rub off the great luck ive always wanted to fish a whole day like that but my buds have little faith one day i will show them thanks for reporting in detail what most would keep secret AWESOME DAY FELLAS
your killin me just looked at your pics in a little more close up i think i got every one of the lures hangin out of those fishs mouth and cant tell you how many times ive been laughed at for pullin them out
this report will be forwarded NOW thanks again
deff dont take the shower might rub off the great luck ive always wanted to fish a whole day like that but my buds have little faith one day i will show them thanks for reporting in detail what most would keep secret AWESOME DAY FELLAS
2 things-
One of the guys had never done it before and when we were rigging the poppers he was like- WHAT THE HELL IS THAT, AIN’T NO FISH GONNA HIT A POPPER THAT BIG. We told him these were relatively small as poppers go. Obviously you buds should let you try.
I struggled with making this report and how much “valuable” information we were letting out. Many people on this site are so tight lipped its funny. They only come on here to bash others and then disappear. I’ve gained knowledge and friends from here so I decided to share. We were so excited and that type of fishing is so exciting I couldn’t resist. This stuff isn’t new though, just using it here is. Someone had to try and we did. Maybe others have and just not reported it. CF.com is one of the few fishing websites that most people don’t share valuable info like this, which I don’t really understand. We had more fun fishing for pelagics yesterday than any of us have had in this area before. There is definitely a system though and meerly telling you poppers, jigs and stickbaits is not enough. We worked hard and were justly rewarded.
I was the one who said, “What the hell is that”! I was very skeptical to this approach we were going to put on carolina blackfin. It goes against everything I have ever learned when targeting this fish!! Besides, when you see the size of one of these poppers it’ll make you laugh at first if you’ve never seen one.
While we were trolling I was standing in the back of the boat watching the spread when some tuna busted about 30 yards off of the bow. Ted and Reggie grabbed there spinning rods off of the bow and threw to the tuna. After about the third jerk of both baits they were hooked up! I still wasn’t 100% convinced so I rigged up a little 3’ piece of 50# fluorcarbon and reached into the livewell and put a mullet on just in case this happened again. Well, the tuna busted near the boat again about 30 minutes later and we all were on it. I chunked the mullet out and was the only one standing in the boat not hooked up. I stuck with the livebait approach a few more times before I said, “Do you guys have any more of those poppers”.
The strikes alone were a site to see. Some of the blackfin would hit the lure so hard that it would fly 2 - 4’ out of the water when missed. The cool thing is when they missed it they always seemed to come back to it again. A few strikes were within 6’ of the boat too!! One of the poppers was even hit so many times it developed a crack all the way down the middle of it.
We all have had great fishing trips but this one was awesome and it’s made a believer out of me!!
Atlantic Game and Tackle in Mt. Pleasant carries those poppers, I have a handful of customers that regularly travel to Panama, so I keep them in stock for them, they cast great for schooling dolphin as well.
