Got up early this morning and was in the water at Sherman Cove at 5:30. The sun was just coming up and was a great begining. That's where the nice weather ends. Got out to the pass and you could have surfed on the 4-5 footers with the 6 knt outgoing tide. It was nasty. But I had my trusty stretches in the water and as I go to turn around about at the second buoy, I get a nice zziiiiiiiing. Fish on. Now here is where being by yourself gets a little tricky. Clear the other line. Check. Try to hold the boat steady into the current, while trying to reel in a fish. Got it boat side and it said, I feel like running. It took about as much line out as I had out initially. Proved a little difficult but got it to the boat and in the cooler it went. Or should I say tried to go in the cooler.
Get the lines back in the water and continue my little pattern just inside the pass and about 15-20 minutes later the rod goes off. Again, I have to try and work the boat and the fish. This one felt different than a king. It felt like I was pulling up a ton of bricks. Sure enough, a nice bull red. Took a quick picture and back in the water he went.
I caught one more bull red shortly after and had to try and keep the boat from getting pushed into the jetties, so a quick release of that guy and I was fishing again.
I decide it's just too rough and start to head in when one of rods goes off again. This one felt like another king. Yep, another one.Getit boat side and it decides to take off and just then the rod end snaps off. Eventually get him to the boat again and in the cooler it went. Called it a day or I should say morning after that. I was back at the ramp at 9am. Two kings (42" and 39")and two bull reds (35" and 33")for 2.5 hours of fishing. Even though it was rough, the fishing was decent.
I probably saw 10-15 boats head out through the pass only to see them come right back in. It was rough.
I thought about waiting it out a bit to see if once theoutgoing tidestarted to slack off a bit if it would lay down in the pass some. I guess it didn't. You could have surfed in the pass. The tops of the waves were breaking over. It was one of the roughest days I had seen in a while in the pass.
There were no birds or bait to be seen on top or on my bottom machine when I was out there. Just got hooked up each time and it surprised me. Three out of the four fish hit the blue and silver two piece stretch 25. It was a brand new lure and the king and two reds really put a woopin on it. The last fish (king), hit the green and yellow stretch.
Nice job !!!!!!! Seems whenever i go by myself, i loose the fish, or i loose the gaff, or i loose the fish and the gaff together. Good job all the way around.
parrothead (11/13/2007)Nice job !!!!!!! Seems whenever i go by myself, i loose the fish, or i loose the gaff, or i loose the fish and the gaff together. Good job all the way around.
On the last king, it was almost a time I lost the fish, the gaff, and the rod. :banghead:banghead It seemed everytime I went to gaff the SOB he'd get a burst of energy and just get out of gaff range. At one point I had to pass the rod around my other rod that I had not reeled in:doh and about lost the rod out of my hands. In the middle of all this is when about the last 6 inches or so of my rod actually broke off. So as I finally got the last king on the boat, I gave him a few choice words.
You see, people think i was joking, It has happened many a times. Friends have a fish on and i try to gaff it with a fish on to,. OOOPS ,there she goes over the side of the boat. Good job though.
Sounds like the 1st time I hit the gulf alone. Got up at 4am, called Dad - he said he wasn't going,oh great...who could I call now? So I went solo. It was rough like you described. I caught 2 kings while trolling cigars on steel leaders w/ stingers. After the 1st - between the catch, battling the water/boat and the release....I had to grab the rail to throw up :sick Twas the 1st time I got that sick on the boat.
I too was out surfing the pass waves. I took my 17 footer and caught about three huge swells. I was driving into the wave and could say its height was up to my t-top. Pretty crazy. I didn't have as much luck with the fish as you guys did but got my line and boat wet. There were a ton of white trout at 3mile...
Nice job Jon! Sorry I wasn't able to get back in touch w/ you in time. It was a blur of a weekend and the phone was at home for most of it. Wish I could have been there to give you a hand brother! Nice job again.
The bull reds are just in the beginning of their large numbers in the pass. They will be around till about Feb to early March in good numbers in the pass. The same with the kings. The cold snaps really bring them out.
Drew,
I keep trying to get you to go fishing with me. Still on the job hunt I see. Let me know when you want to go fishing.
The plan was to launch kayak at dawn. But casting right before dawn landed 2 redfish (1 slot, 1 dink) in about 5 mins. Both caught on Strike King Redfish Magic, about 14 feet from shore.
I think it's day eight of this isolation fish fest. Ran into a buddy of mine that looked virus free and made a plan to isolate on the boat together.
Hit the jetties early with fiddlers in bucket. Right off the bat a nice sheepshead and a pompano went in the box along with a couple accidental...
Fished the Ono Island flats for about 2 hours today. Had one swipe and a miss. Tried trolling the docks with a rapala, no joy. This usually gets a few trout at least.
So, where da trouts at?
Windy morning. Stood at the ramp this morning wondering if I should go. Mike came all the way from baker to fish pomp and sheep with me so I couldn't say no.
The seas out side the pass were just as I envisioned, sloppy and ugly. On top of that, the current was running super hard.
We buried our...
Got to the Tyndall marina before sun up to find the wind blowing out of the South. Figuring it would be rough at the jetties I opted to try crooked island pass.
Conditions were ok at the CI pass but no pompano could be found. A few decent whiting found my silly Willy so no big loss.
I opted to...
