Quote:
Originally Posted by CAJUNLAWYER
OK so Snapper season opened earlier this week and you let us know you were going-yet we've heard NOTHING 
whats up with that?????
Either you died at sea or caught nada.
Which is it??? |
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
OKAY, here goes.....................................long hard and rough week.
Great start to an almost perfect 2 days of fishing.
Launched from St Andrews Marina about 4:45 Tuesday morning. Had grunts and cigar minnows in the live well by 5, out the pass headed WNW at about 42mph. 18 minutes later the bouy goes out, two minutes later the anchor is set and the "ding ding" sounds and baits are in the water.
29.5" amber jack, one after another after another. Could not get a bait with 12 ounces of lead past them to try for grouper or snapper. Pissed away $50 worth of bait on short jacks.
Hooked up the anchor ball and snatched up the anchor and 15 foot of 3/8" chain. Wound up the bouy and moved OUT about 9 more miles.
Dang if those amberjacks didn't follow us????
Finally managed to get some cigar minnows and grunts to the bottom. By 10 we were limited on 20-22 inch snapper. There were 4 of us in the boat. Tuesday we never did catch any really good snapper. Just better than average. But I personally caught over 60 keepers. There is no shortage of quality snapper in my area. My nephew caught a 29 and 26 inch black grouper and Woody caught another huge reg grouper.
No one in the boat was willing to put their pole down long enough to take a pic of someone else. I did get a few pix of a short a/j and a few sharks.
Wed just my old army buddy and I went out. He was more interested in catching (hanging) JAWS than putting fish in the box. So I limited us out on good snapper that day and cuaght 2 kings and 2 gags. I caught a really good 29" and hooked a good one and let him reel it in. It was 23+. Caught a couple of 5' sharks and then John got on the big bite.
He had a 400/0 reel on a 6 foot 4X4 with wheels on it. I think he had weed eater line on that reel too! I had him rigged up with a 16 ounce sinker and a big 16/0 hook. He got cut off on the coral several times, but did hook up one time realy good on a a really big shark. It almost spooled that big reel, but I finally made him tighten up his TLD and put his reel in low gear. He eventually turned the shark and started to drag it back to the boat. He had over 500 yards of #100 main line out. So it was a slow process with 1.3:1 gears. He fought it for about 40 minutes and was begging me to hook the anchor ball to the anchor rope and chase the shark down. I told him we don't do things like that in my boat and to man-up. He was disappointed!
Got the shark to within about 60 feet of the boat. Now I'm trying to get him to ease up on his drag just a little. "NOPE, I've got him whipped and he's comin to the boat" . WELL,....maybe KNOT. Two quick and hard surges and his main line failed.
I've had 9 footers up beside the boat many times and either pulled the hook or cut the leaders. But this was by far the biggest shark that has ever been hooked up in my boat. All I have is pix of John getting his butt whipped.
I have attached a few pix of a few of the fish. We were pretty sorry in the picture taking department this trip. Will try to do better on the next trip.
I think Mon or Tues I'm gonna take my game warden friend and his little boy Winston out. You guys might remember Winston from a trip 2 years ago.
Will tell you a sad/bad/ugly story about what happened at the ramp Wed morning while 2 old men were trying to unload in another thread. Don't want to spoil this one.
He's standing up and leaning back in this picture.
caught several 30" gag/black grouper and a few red grouper, but nothing like we usually catch. No bee-liners or trigger fish at all. Didn't see teh first schoolie dolphin in two days either. A few spadefish swam buy Wed.
Got to cut grass that needed cuting 4 days ago..........more later.
SC
Need a fishing report Senior Citizen
Linear Mode
