Planned on getting some bait inshore and running out deep to toss at some weed lines and drop down for deep fish if seen on the sonar. Did not find any bait with enough size to it, so went ahead and rolled into the ocean around 7:30am. Hit the mouth of the jetties, and the seas were slopped up. Didn’t make much sense to me. Tide should have already been sucked out by then. Stopped to set up a track on the GPS, and I realized the wind was blowing harder than I thought. Made about 10 miles before I realized that it was not going to be a fun day at all coming in from deep if it got any worse or if any storms came up. Forecast was obviously blown. Looked for something nearby to go look at even though I wanted my wife to get some type of pretty red, green or blue fish in her first time offshore in our boat. It was hard to change plans, but it was the right thing. Holt On was going to buddy boat with me, and they were coming out of the harbor about when I was 10 miles out. I got a call on the radio from them saying they had blown a lower unit and had to return to the dock. The day just wasn’t going as planned. That’s okay though. That’s fishing.
Went to what was nearby, and looked at a lot of bottom in one area, and it was hard to tell where the good fish were vs. bait because of the boat pitching so much and there being so much life. Saw lots of snapper marks, but they were all spread out instead of in one place. Found one area that I felt like I could get the boat hung over easily, so we dropped the hook. Stuck perfectly. One thing about a 10-15kt East wind- it will definately make an anchor course easy to figure out.
Caught a couple sand bass and c bass before Chris hooked up something really nice that broke the leader. I slipped back a little more by letting some scope out, and then we started catching some better fish.
I say we, but I really don’t mean me. I had to lie back on the beanbag for a little bit before I passed out. I am getting too old for this stuff it seems… We had been out on the boat
That cobia wrasslin sounds familiar. My dad and I had a time with a 50lb dolphin that came off the gaff before we got him in the box. It’s been over a month and his big toe is still black.
Congratulations on a good day!
Cape Horn 24OS
twin 150 Optimax
I don’t want to be rich,
I just want 1 dollar more than I can spend!
Good job Wes. I preferto avoid the east wind myself. Glad to hear you put the boss on the fish. Did she clean the fish and boat for you? If not you have more training to do.
“If we ever forget that we’re
one nation under God,
we will be a nation gone under.” - Ronald Reagan
Sharks will take over a half dozen at the time, which ruins some rigs. We caught 8 or 9 annoying sharpnoses in this trip and ruined probably 4 rigs just to catch the 12 or 13 keeper fish that we did. Just keep fishing through them… The gags will bite in spurts. Lots of them out there, but they are lazy sometimes and they want to be spoon fed. It is interesting. Sometimes they want a particular species live bait. Sometimes they want a particular species cut bait. One will outfish the other when you least expect it. There are some general tendancies I have found, but I am not one to lead anyone down any particular paths. It is more lucking up with having the right flavor in the right time and place than actually outsmarting them.
This is the second roughest day I have bottom fished in <75ft in summer time, and both these rough days the gags ate whatever we were fishing with other than live bait. I have caught them on gulp crabs and clams, squid, cigar minnows, sardines, cut menhaden, cut bonita, cut AJ, cut red porgy, cut B liner, cut grunt, cut rudderfish, cut sand bass, c bass, shrimp… all sorts of stuff. Depends on their mood or maybe what their chef has told them is the flavor of the day. Try everything you can if you feel like you are seeing them on a spot and you are putting it within 15 feet of them where they want to be feeding. If all else fails, call in a spearfisherman.
