Being relatively new to offshore fishing on my own, there have been several “firsts” for me. On this day, Tuesday 12/30, I had several “firsts” all in one trip. I live in Mississippi and fish out of Orange Beach, so I have to plan my trips a little in advance. My wife and I had planned to go out on Tuesday and maybe Wednesday since the seas were calming down. At 11:00pm Monday evening, she decided that she really didn’t want to get up early (4am) and make the 3.5 hour drive to Orange Beach. I said ‘OK’ and went to check the forecast one more time before bed. When I came back to the bedroom she asked me what I was gonna do. I told her that I was going fishing even if I had to go alone. She was worried about me going alone, and worried about me launching and recovering the boat. I have a 23’ Cobia WA and haven’t put in or taken out by myself. After arriving at Orange Beach, I visited several tackle shops, took advantage of several sales and went and picked up the boat. Here’s where the “firsts” started;

• I launched the boat by myself.
• I headed out to the GOM by myself.
• I decided to go to several ‘new’ spots to fish them for the ‘first’ time.
• About 14 miles out, I saw a pod of dolphins, so I went over to them to take some pictures (to make the wife jealous of course)…must’ve been over 50 of the I arrived at the fishing spot about 20 miles out, there was another boat about 400 feet away.
• I set the anchor by myself.
• I had some frozen bait, but decided I would do some jigging ‘first’.
• Dropped down a speed jig, and hooked into something on the 2^nd retrieve up…my ‘first’ AJ. Only 22 inches, but still my ‘first’ AJ and the ‘first’ time I tried this jigging thing.
• I loaded up another rod with frozen bait and dropped it down while I continued jigging. I caught several more AJs in the 22 to 24 inch range…man, was I stoked!!!
• Tied on a Bucktail jig and dropped it down. Bam, the fight was on…my first Bonito. Man, these fish can fight.
• Dropped the Bucktail back down. Bam! Oh-oh! Line was peeling from my reel. Could this be my first legal AJ? After a couple minutes of tug-a-war, the line went slack. Oh well…that’s fishing.
• I tied on another speed jig and caught a couple of those endangered Red Snapper on the jigs.
• While all of this was going on, I caught several Red Snapper on frozen bait. I was hoping for a couple of stupid Grouper (wish I’d had some live bait).
• The other boat left, so I decided to drift a little. Did I mention how flat the seas were getting? Dropped down the jig again and let it lay on the bottom for a few seconds. Bam…this felt pretty good too. Pulled in my ‘first’ Red fish…27 ½ inches. Released him and dropped the jig down again. Same thing, except this Red was 27 inches even. Release him also.

Man, I was so stoked I could’ve beat up King Kong with a hickory switch! But it’s 4:45pm and I gotta go. The GOM was almost completely flat now, so I knew I could make it back pretty quick. I didn’t mention that Flipper was cruising from boat to boat in search of a free meal. All in all, I didn’t have a single fish to clean, but I wasn’t mad. I had memories of several more ‘firsts’!

Total catch; 5 Amberjacks, 1 Bonito, 7 Endangered Red Snappers, 2 Reds, 3 unknown break-offs.

 

Jeff

scot

        

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Good Luck Jeff, give me a shout next time last minute or not and I'll try to meet you for a fun day on the water...

Jimmy

Ted

Good for you. I don't know how many times I have wussed out on what could be the best fishing ever cause I didn't have someone to go with me. I bet just knowing that you did it all by yourself was as good of a feeling as actually catching the fish huh. Rock on.

---Everything Is What It Is---
     And Not Another Thing

I am very much a 'family man' and really enjoy it when my wife and/or boys go with me. Most of the time I spend a good bit of the time helping them with landing a fish or re-rigging their pole...and I really enjoy it because we're spending time together. But I think it is good to have some 'alone' time now and then and this was one of them. After I got home and showed them the pictures, I got the feeling that they won't let me go out alone again. And you are almost right...the feeling of accomplishment was almost as good as the "tug-a-wars" me and them fish had.

Jeff