Destin Offshore Mixed Bag 1/28

MillerTime · 01-29-2012, 11:21 AM

I would have posted this last night but was too tired. KJ (TrophyHusband) and I decided to go looking for some AJ's yesterday morning. We met at the ramp at 4 in the morning and sent out to find some live bait. We only picked up a couple croakers at the bridge and headed out to some good bottom to find some more. Luck wasn't on our side at this point since we could only pull up catfish at the first two spots. We then hit paydirt on the third spot and filled up the live well. Went out to the first spot out about 6-7 miles and he put down a live one and I started jigging. Not too much luck except one real big surprise that I didn't want to bother taking a picture since I was too busy trying to revive him. The surprise was a huge bull red that I caught on a red and white jig in about 80' of water all the way at the bottom. That was a first for me. KJ also picked up a real nice Gag that unfortunately we couldn't keep.

Destin Offshore Mixed Bag 1/28-pic_1577-jpg

We weren't having too much luck here so we headed out another 5 miles out. This is where we had our most success. We tried sending down some lives ones and I hooked into a huge red snapper which surprisingly was the only one of the day I think. While I was getting ready to drop back down, KJ hooks into something pretty big. Well when he finally got it to the boat it ended up being a shark which I don't know what kind.

Destin Offshore Mixed Bag 1/28-pic_1580-jpg

Well as he is reeling in the shark he notices a bunch of fish following the shark and hanging around about 20-30' below the boat. It kind of looked like Ajs so I dropped a jog down to see what I could hook up with. Well instantly I hook up with a real nice AJ and get him to the boat. He measured in at a little over 31". I drop down again but get broken off. At this point KJ says that he has some homemade knife jigs so I decided to try this out and figure out if they actually work or not. The first one is all done up with prism tape and eyes and a nice assist hook down the side. I drop down it is a little light. Not so bad at the time but if the current was any stronger it would be tough to get to the bottom. Halfway up it gets nailed but then almost immediately breaks loose. As I am reeling up it seems like the jig is still on and once I get it to the surface I find out the hook broke off. Well I start looking through the rest of his homemade jigs and find a plain butter knife with only a hook on it. This one turned out to be the best one of the day. I only had maybe 3 or 4 times where I actually got the jig to the surface the rest of the day.

Destin Offshore Mixed Bag 1/28-pic_1583-jpg

I like the lightness of this one in the way that it fluttered. It had really good action on the way up and then unlike the heavier ones it was more of a random drop then shooting back down like the heavier ones. I noticed they hit most of the time on the flutter down when I was reeling up so instead of just the one hook on the bottom I put another hook on the top. This was a good thing as the next time I dropped down I hooked into my best fight of the day. He turned out to be a 34" AJ and when we got him to the boat the bottom hook was snapped off in his mouth and then second hook was ll that was keeping him on. At this point we had our limit and tried to mix it up a little bit. We started trolling and got some real good hits and we ended up catching a few more AJs and a bonita while trolling. The AJs were caught on a islander with some bait on it and also a stretch 25 or 30. Can't remember as I got cut off later on. The bonita hit on a dolphin rig with some cut bait on it. Too bad we didn't catch the bonita earlier even though we tried all day long. This was because while we were trolling this shark that I would estiamte at about 8-9 feet hit two of our baits behind the boat when we didnt have the gear out for him and he easily cut us off. We stopped and rerigged and then couldn't find him again. We did see a few big turtles out there though that didn't seem too scared of us. At this point it was time to go back in but decided to stop at the hot AJ spot from earlier and this was when I broke off my stretch on what I thought was an AJ and then tried a few more homemade jigs out. The one that didn't catch anything that day though was a spoon one. Not one single hookup. All in all a great day even though the weather picked up in the afternoon and made for a choppy ride in.

devndeb · 01-29-2012, 08:40 PM

NICE but lonnggg trip...good to get out on the water, though...We should've gone yesterday as it appeared to be a lake out there...

Trophyhusband · 01-29-2012, 10:46 PM

Here's a few more pics from yesterday. Unfortunately some are a little over exposed. It was definitely the best AJ day I've ever had. Got some cool shots of the underside of a man-o-war too.

Captain Mickey O'Reilly · 01-30-2012, 02:53 PM

Very cool trip! Taking a break from wrapping my new AJ rod! Just at 6' of jigging mayhem! Looks like a great time was had by all!

dailysaw · 01-30-2012, 06:06 PM

Great report and pics!

tugfisher76 · 01-30-2012, 06:10 PM

i love to know how he mad those jigs lol

MillerTime · 01-30-2012, 07:26 PM

The trip was awesome, glad I went. They seemed pretty easy to make.

Trophyhusband · 01-30-2012, 08:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain Mickey O'Reilly

Very cool trip! Taking a break from wrapping my new AJ rod! Just at 6' of jigging mayhem! Looks like a great time was had by all!

I'm going to build an AJ rod for my first build. I have a lot to figure out first though. I don't know anything about building rods. I also have to finish my rod wrapper thingy.

Trophyhusband · 01-30-2012, 08:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tugfisher76

i love to know how he mad those jigs lol

Drill a hole at each end of the knife, put split rings in the holes. Put a hook on the split ring through the handle. Put a hook and a barrel swivel on the split ring through the blade. Simple, cheap, and deadly. I caught two more AJ's on that same knife today and hooked into a third one. He had to have been a monster. I couldn't get his head turned away from structure and he eventually made it to the wreck and broke off. I also caught another redfish with it.

superchua · 01-31-2012, 12:02 PM

Wow! I'm definetely going to try to make my own knife jigs. Have you ever tried using a spoon? Seems like it would give you a different option if you wanted a different "flutter"

01-29-2012, 11:21 AM	#1
MillerTime Senior Member Grouper Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Navarre, FL Posts: 657	Destin Offshore Mixed Bag 1/28 I would have posted this last night but was too tired. KJ (TrophyHusband) and I decided to go looking for some AJ's yesterday morning. We met at the ramp at 4 in the morning and sent out to find some live bait. We only picked up a couple croakers at the bridge and headed out to some good bottom to find some more. Luck wasn't on our side at this point since we could only pull up catfish at the first two spots. We then hit paydirt on the third spot and filled up the live well. Went out to the first spot out about 6-7 miles and he put down a live one and I started jigging. Not too much luck except one real big surprise that I didn't want to bother taking a picture since I was too busy trying to revive him. The surprise was a huge bull red that I caught on a red and white jig in about 80' of water all the way at the bottom. That was a first for me. KJ also picked up a real nice Gag that unfortunately we couldn't keep. We weren't having too much luck here so we headed out another 5 miles out. This is where we had our most success. We tried sending down some lives ones and I hooked into a huge red snapper which surprisingly was the only one of the day I think. While I was getting ready to drop back down, KJ hooks into something pretty big. Well when he finally got it to the boat it ended up being a shark which I don't know what kind. Well as he is reeling in the shark he notices a bunch of fish following the shark and hanging around about 20-30' below the boat. It kind of looked like Ajs so I dropped a jog down to see what I could hook up with. Well instantly I hook up with a real nice AJ and get him to the boat. He measured in at a little over 31". I drop down again but get broken off. At this point KJ says that he has some homemade knife jigs so I decided to try this out and figure out if they actually work or not. The first one is all done up with prism tape and eyes and a nice assist hook down the side. I drop down it is a little light. Not so bad at the time but if the current was any stronger it would be tough to get to the bottom. Halfway up it gets nailed but then almost immediately breaks loose. As I am reeling up it seems like the jig is still on and once I get it to the surface I find out the hook broke off. Well I start looking through the rest of his homemade jigs and find a plain butter knife with only a hook on it. This one turned out to be the best one of the day. I only had maybe 3 or 4 times where I actually got the jig to the surface the rest of the day. I like the lightness of this one in the way that it fluttered. It had really good action on the way up and then unlike the heavier ones it was more of a random drop then shooting back down like the heavier ones. I noticed they hit most of the time on the flutter down when I was reeling up so instead of just the one hook on the bottom I put another hook on the top. This was a good thing as the next time I dropped down I hooked into my best fight of the day. He turned out to be a 34" AJ and when we got him to the boat the bottom hook was snapped off in his mouth and then second hook was ll that was keeping him on. At this point we had our limit and tried to mix it up a little bit. We started trolling and got some real good hits and we ended up catching a few more AJs and a bonita while trolling. The AJs were caught on a islander with some bait on it and also a stretch 25 or 30. Can't remember as I got cut off later on. The bonita hit on a dolphin rig with some cut bait on it. Too bad we didn't catch the bonita earlier even though we tried all day long. This was because while we were trolling this shark that I would estiamte at about 8-9 feet hit two of our baits behind the boat when we didnt have the gear out for him and he easily cut us off. We stopped and rerigged and then couldn't find him again. We did see a few big turtles out there though that didn't seem too scared of us. At this point it was time to go back in but decided to stop at the hot AJ spot from earlier and this was when I broke off my stretch on what I thought was an AJ and then tried a few more homemade jigs out. The one that didn't catch anything that day though was a spoon one. Not one single hookup. All in all a great day even though the weather picked up in the afternoon and made for a choppy ride in. Last edited by MillerTime; 01-29-2012 at 11:23 AM.

01-29-2012, 08:40 PM	#2
devndeb Senior Member Mingo Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Ft. Walton Beach Posts: 187	NICE but lonnggg trip...good to get out on the water, though...We should've gone yesterday as it appeared to be a lake out there... __________________ [/SIGPIC]A Veteran is someone who, at one time in their life, has signed a check to Uncle Sam, Payable for up to their life. 18 Neptune CC. 115 Suzuki 4 Stroke 21 Searay Custom Merc 260

01-29-2012, 10:46 PM	#3
Trophyhusband Senior Member Grouper Join Date: Nov 2011 Posts: 652	Here's a few more pics from yesterday. Unfortunately some are a little over exposed. It was definitely the best AJ day I've ever had. Got some cool shots of the underside of a man-o-war too. Attached Thumbnails Attached Images

01-30-2012, 02:53 PM	#4
Captain Mickey O'Reilly Senior Member Snapper Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Navarre, FL Posts: 407	Very cool trip! Taking a break from wrapping my new AJ rod! Just at 6' of jigging mayhem! Looks like a great time was had by all! __________________ http://www.angrybirdfishingcharters.com/ Captain Mickey O'Reilly Angry Bird Fishing Charters LLC 850-723-1274 Captainmickeyo@yahoo.com

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01-30-2012, 06:06 PM	#5
dailysaw Senior Member Sailfish Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: scenic hwy Posts: 1,543	Great report and pics!

01-30-2012, 06:10 PM	#6
tugfisher76 Member Ruby Red Lip Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: crestview Posts: 79	i love to know how he mad those jigs lol

01-30-2012, 07:26 PM	#7
MillerTime Senior Member Grouper Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Navarre, FL Posts: 657	The trip was awesome, glad I went. They seemed pretty easy to make.

01-31-2012, 12:02 PM	#10
superchua Member Ruby Red Lip Join Date: May 2011 Posts: 95	Wow! I'm definetely going to try to make my own knife jigs. Have you ever tried using a spoon? Seems like it would give you a different option if you wanted a different "flutter"

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