11-10-07 bottom bumping

My buddy Duayne and I met up with Bonita Dan at Navy Point around 5:45am. We netted a bunch of pinfish and headed off to the Gulf. Our original plan was to head straight to the Yellow Gravel but it was a bit sloppy in the morning so we stopped at some natural bottom about half way there. We were trying to catch some Triggers but couldn't hardly get a bait past the Snappers. We did manage to get 3 keeper Triggers at this spot before Duayne got a little green under the gills from the rough sea's. We decided to pull anchor and let Duayne drive the boat to help with the sea sickness. It was still pretty sloppy at this time so we decided to head over to the Antares instead of the Yellow Gravel. Duayne felt fine by the time we got there so we anchored up looking for some AJ's. It didn't take long before the Barracuda's showed up. I was bringing in a nice Mingo and a Cuda came up and cut him in half. I put my rod in the rod holder with my Mingo sitting on the surface and grabbed my camera. The Cuda's gave me plenty of photo opps and I was able to come up with these.







I was having a blast watching all this happen right at the boat and right by my hands. At one point I was taking a pic of one comming straight at the camera/Mingo then I noticed there was another comming from the backside. At that point I decided to get my hands back in the boat and continue fishing. A little while later me and Dan hook up on a double. His fish was a good one so I reeled mine up quicklyso I could net his fish. When mine got tothe surface it turned out to be an (EDIT) African Pompano.



After a couple quick pic's I let him go then went to help Dan with his fish. As soon as I turned to help him I noticed something with his line then POP!!! the line broke and we watch a 10lb or so Grouper slowly swim back down.:banghead His line had gotten hung up on a nick in the ceramic eye on the rod tip. We got back to fishing and put a couple Mangroves and a few Mingo's in the box. By this time the Gulf was calming down so we decided to makethe run to the Yellow Gravel. After we got anchored up the Reel Addiction crew came over to say hello.



Dan was rocked by a Grouper while they were there and he kept on working on it after they left. I was dropping down a butterflied hardtail and it got slammed on the way down. I had the drag locked down tight and this fish was still burning line off the 6/0. I would make some progress only to have him take it all back. As the fight was nearing the end I felt my line starting to scrape against Dans line that was still rocked. I got the fish about 15ft or so under the boat where we could see him then the two lines knotted together and I couldn't budge it. At this point Duayne takes Dan's rod and pulls up real hard and breaks his line thus freeing my AJ. Duayne then sunk the gaff in him and pulled him onboard.

My digital scales were not working so we estimated the weight to be 35lbs or so. My line was extremly fraid so I was lucky to get him in the boat. We continued on fishing and Duayne added an 18in Scamp to the box and I added a 4lb+ Mingo. A few small Mahi showed up and I was able to get this picture of the one we got in the box.



The Reel Addiction crew came by and chatted one more time on theirway in. We continued on fishing for a while with out much to show for. Here's Dan fighting a fish as the sun was going down.





As you can see from the last few pictures it really smoothed out by the end of the day. Here is a pic of the fish we worked hard for all day.

Dan is a fun guy to go fishing with and we all had a good time. The fish were not biting very good except the endangered Red Snapper so we had to work for everything we caught.

Final Tally:

1AJ

1 Scamp

4 Triggers

9 Mingo's

2 Mangroves

1 King

1 Chicken Dolphin

2 White Snapper

and a huge Porgy