Every time I’ve fished lately, I come back thinking the same thing, “Things just ain’t right!”
We were killing the blackfin in January in 68 degree green water, snapper and grouper were eating anything you dropped in 58 degree water. As the Spring has worn on I have seen the same things, odd that is. Although I am still putting my book of knowledge together here in SC, this is what I’ve seen lately. Very little bait and fish on normally productive #‘s in 100’. BSB eating where grouper and snapper usually lie. Red snapper abound in deep water(200’+). The lack of a hard stream edge has dolphin spread out already from depths of 60’ to over 1000’.
This is a photo from deep water a few weeks ago. as we moved out to 800’ this bait ball grew to a thickness of 400’, yet we only pulled one bull off that shook loose before hitting the gaff. We then moved in to bottom fish and had to leave a spot in 200’ b/c of the red snapper. We got a few limits of scamp and a snowy b-4 calling it a day.
We found acres of bait yesterday and sabiki’d a mix of greenies, cigars and other stuff. Nice nervous water.
The oddities continued as we got our 3 man limits of bottom dwellers, to include tilefish, scamp and gags. I’ve never caught a tile here, and yesterday we got two. The reds were biting well too, of course they were all released.
I was pretty much a tart on the rod today, but redeemed myself with a kitty, nice scamp and a good gag.
The dolphin came thru and David got a good cow around 20# but the rest of them wouldn’t bite and we only boated one more out of about 30 circling the boat. I had a large shark on at the t
Courtland, as always thank you for the trip and I’m glad you got your mojo back. I was beginning to think you had lost it there for awhile, that is until you put the avet down and grabbed little pepe! It’s hard to believe a reel that size can put a whoopin on every fish I’ve ever seen you hook.
Courtland, as always thank you for the trip and I’m glad you got your mojo back. I was beginning to think you had lost it there for awhile, that is until you put the avet down and grabbed little pepe! It’s hard to believe a reel that size can put a whoopin on every fish I’ve ever seen you hook.
I agree that the fishing is a little different this year. I have fished some good areas in ~110 that should hold gags now, but they only seem to hold black bass. How deep have you been catching the gags and scamps recently?
I agree that the fishing is a little different this year. I have fished some good areas in ~110 that should hold gags now, but they only seem to hold black bass. How deep have you been catching the gags and scamps recently?
Since grouper season opened I have not had a grouper or snapper inside of 150’, although I have not spent much time there we should have seen the signs they were there and just not biting. Normally productive spots are void of life from what the FF shows and the few drops we’ve made have produced nothing but bsb and a few triggers. I do know they are on the artificials and I’m sure they are near there normal haunts, but the lack of life and bait in the “normal” areas seems a bit odd.
Things are definitely different this year…I was hoping that june would be our may but the dolphin are already spread out to 75 feet or less… plus there’s still bfts around… we’ve had a slow warming trend though… I don’t know but I’m ready to get into prome fishing, great job on those fish man and nice pics
“Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have. The course of history shows us that as a government grows, liberty decreases.”
— Thomas Jefferson
