Shared Delusion

 

We left O’Neils Marina at 8:30am - The weather looked beautiful. Gregg came along - his new scion. We first went to the skyway for bait. Schools of small greenbacks were crusing the shadow line but it was too deep to catch them and we did not want to risk the net by concrete. We switched to the Flats - chum worked and we had a nice mix of bigger greenbacks, threadfin herring and pinfish.

On the agenda was a straight run for the deep (130 feet) - no distractions allowed.

Once we got to the Mexican pride we saw lots of boats - apparently its not just my Secret Spot. So we tried the hard bottom in the south SW area of the wreck. Oddly no sargassum or flying fish to speak of. The water was amazingly flat. The bottom fishing seemed to be very light until we drifted over some swiss cheese bottom and then the red groupers were hooked up. We caught 4 Red Groupers big enough for the box. We also came across a school of Mahi - the whitebait came in very handy. We caught 8 of the beauties and got some great pictures thanks to Gregg.

Both Gregg and I tried swimming with the Mahi and it was very unsettling to swim in the expansive blue water with no point of reference. But seeing the Mahi swim by was pretty cool.

On the way back we stopped by the Parking lot - err I mean the Mexican Pride and saw 100’s of small amberjack under the boat plus many barracuda. Circling at the surface, were large schools of Jack crevalle. I caught one with a live bait tossed from the front of the boat.

On the way back we stopped because of some surface activity. We caught a Little Tunny - our first (that arrived in one peice :). The boat was surrounded by large sharks - we caught themuntil our backs and shoulders where like jello. All released to fight another day. That was in 100 feet of water - other than the sharks not much activity - but we did learn what sharks look like on sonar.

We were out early the next day. We hoped for a repeat performance. Bait was the same. Destination unchanged.

We noticed the sharks where larger in shallow water and got smaller the further out we went - the grouper got bigger the deeper the water. Day was essentially the same - 4 keeper grouper.

On the way back in, We spotted on the edge of our sight a small blip on the surface. We decided to investigate. In about 110 feet of water a telephone pole was drifting. Not something I’d like to run over but It was a welcome sight to see the acres of Mahi free jumping like mullet around the pole. The school must have been in the hundreds. The were very aggresive. We caught them none stop for 45 minutes - until we hit our limit of 30.Everyone at work had Freezer bags filled with Mahi on Tuesday! It took Robert 2 hours to clean them all! Our cooler was over flowing with them. This was probably the best day we have ever had!!

We came across some Little Tunny in 80 feet but where to tired to more than one pass.

The Mahi surrounding the boat was a picture perfect Florida fishing day. The water was a perfect clean tourquise and so slick - not a single wave was seen.

Happy fishing, 
Eric

Robert and Terry went to the Betty Rose and the Barge near by. Tons of bait over the wreck and lots steel leader cutoffs. Terry caught a Little Tunny - It had its back end taken off by a barracuda or shark.

Happy fishing, 
Eric

 

We planned a half day trip, one box of sardines and some squid were the baits of choice. First stop was for some live bait at the Egmont channel Whistler bouy. It was nice blue water but devoid of bait. Our first Sardine was dropped over the Gunsmoke wreck - We caught some small red grouper but not much was going on.

We did see a guy trying to free his anchor by gunning his engine - What an idiot! We joked about his lack of boating skill.

We went to leave and our anchor was jammed too So it must be an unexplained bottom phenominon -it cant be lack of skill

 

Lucky it was our freebee anchor that came with the boat - so when it came up twisted - no real loss. It was to windy of a day to drift fish so we decided to head in and drop some baits on good fish sign.

At one of the stops we got a large kingfish on a dead ladyfish - We had rigged it on a stinger.

One good thing was that we now have the best anchor ever! it cannot get snagged because its got some nylon snaps that break so you can back out the anchor if needed. Its also much heavier - so we use a anchor ball.

Happy fishing, 
Eric