Shared Delusion

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

This weekend was great weather to stay in the bay. We took some friends and introduced them to Florida fishing. Since one was only 5 years old - We targeted anything that will take a shrimp. Trout, Ladyfish and pinfish where the big winners (or I guess loosers from the fishes perspective) All were released but one 17″ seatrout.

water was a bit murky but it was fun.

The next day, I went fishing by myself and it was really relaxing - I caught a lot of 13-18″ seatrout but released them all - To much trouble to clean and I like mahi and grouper better

Happy fishing, 
Eric

No bait inshore - we sabikied some white bait plus the standard sardines and squid.

Water was flat and it had warmed to 70 degrees. No surface activity at all on the way out. We stopped at the gunsmoke and got some hits - lots of bait over wreck but we had bigger plans. Some really huge pinfish over the gunsmoke - I did not know they could get so big.

At the Mexican Pride we difted and got snagged many times. Robert tried a vermillion snapper we caught on a sabiki. He pulled up his first amberjack - and it was late so we left. We think we would have been more succesfull anchoring off to the side of the wreck.

Also learned that 2 reel cycles = 3 feet

Happy fishing, 
Eric

 

Robert and Terry fished the schools of mackerel off of the Don Cesar. They caught a huge Kingfish, some huge Spanish mackerel and Sharks.

Happy fishing, 
Eric

Good bait on the flats - our new nets works great - its very heavy but I have learned how to handle it. Skyway was devoid of bait. Picked up some Blue runners and ladyfish in the Egmont channel. Massive schools of greenbacks about 3-5 miles out but no signs of predators.

50 feet by the freighters - no action. but bait pods changed to huge cigar minnows.

At 70 feet we came across some schools of cigar minnows being harrased by some kings - We caught one on a live ladyfish. My first kingfish.

The water was flat and blue - a perfect day.

We decided to try the gunsmoke - a wreck far to the south.

On the way we came thru a unusual area which some dolphin (mammal) and odd bait signs. We stopped (did not mark it however … grrrrr) While idling around looking at the bottom with some baits out - one might call this unintentional trolling. Robert caught a huge fish. At first we had no idea what it was. From the depths came the biggest Jack Crevalle We had ever seen. It was 32 lbs.

I’d swear Robert was in a life or death struggle with it for 30 minutes. He was beat. We heaved the fish back in the water after some pictures. Then we left with put marking the spot - in retropect it was probably a spring or some other structure.

At the gunsmoke we caught a few undersize grouper but the bait where covering the wreck. We waited for 30 min until a single diver left the wreck and the 3 boats could start fishing.

Happy fishing, 
Eric

Water was real wavy and very windy. We saw some spanish mackerel abot a mile or so off the beach. We caught some on spoons - they were very large - bigger than the ones we used to eat

Now they are bait.

At the south county reef some people were trolling for kings. I saw a big one breach - it was impressive. Saw many schools of little tunny but no luck. On the circle part of the reef we had many hookups and ’snags’ that we though might have been goliath groupers. Terry caught a keeper Gag grouper - it was creating our snags - we know because it puked up some sardines The Gags are fast and powerful in thier first hit.

Happy fishing, 
Eric

Since it was a break in the hurricanes, I had to go out on the boat. This was the summer of the 4 hurricanes hitting florida.

The swells were about 6 feet - far apart, i could not see over the waves when teh boat in the bottom of the swell.

I went out to the 50 feet area around the freighters to catch some grouper. Caught some shorts but I got really seasick. I was either the chum I bought or having to rig for the cobia circling the boat. After, err…. displacing some ballast… I still did not feel better - now I was seasick and tasting puke so I headed in

Happy fishing, 
Eric

 

Since Robert and I fished of the DeSoto Pier and he caught a keeper Cobia - It has been a primary target fish. They look like brown sharks but taste like lobster. They get big too - very strong and curious fish.

All of us where heading out to do some grouper fishing but the 2 feet or less with 5 knot winds, was actually really rough and we could barley stand in the boat. So at a stop that we usually get bait in 40 feet. We fished to see if it would calm down. On pinfish from our new pinfish trap, we caught 4 Huge cobia. We kept 2 of them 23 and 19lbs. We were only on the water for 2 hours before he rough water was too much.

Happy fishing, 
Eric

 

We went straight to Grouper Country with lots of sardines. Fishing was a little lighter than normal but we limited out on grouper

While dropping to the bottom, I saw a flash of yellow coming to the boat. It was a school of small mahi mahi !! One of our target fish! We caught 3 of them - what a beautiful fish!

Happy fishing, 
Eric