Day of Firsts

July 30, 2013

Water temp: 88 degrees

Flat Calm

There hasn't been much to report, except, rain, storms, more rain.  We have been out a couple of times, but without a whole lot of luck inshore.

We finally got a day that looked good in the upcoming weather reports and off we went to the ledge and red grouper hole that I went out with Patty and Willie when they were in town.

It was a day of firsts, mainly for Nancy, as I played net boy and gaff boy as the day progressed.

She had never been out so far when it was flat smooth as these trips are few and far between.

We hit the red grouper hole without much to celebrate.  After about 45 minutes, there we headed over to the ledge and started pulling grunts to the boat.  I was getting some nice ones spoon jigging again.

We did manage some pinfish for bait at the dock before we left Rock Landing.

I was baiting Nancy's rod with them and she waited patiently to get bit.  And she did, three broken lines worth.

But in between the tore up reels and rods she did put this nice cobia in the boat.

It was the first time she had caught one.  Unfortunately it was a 1/2" shy of being a keeper.

I had spooned up two spot tails which I was letting her use for bait.  The first one was hit so hard I heard the rod hit the gunnel before the line broke.

The next one got hit as she slowly reeled it to the surface.

After a prolonged battle around the boat, this beautiful 42" smoker king fish came to the boat.  It was the first one Nancy had ever caught.  It was also the biggest one we have caught so far.

Her co worker told her to catch a king and he would make his famous fish dip with it.  He was cleaning the smoker as we left the ramp yesterday.  Can't wait for that!

Finally, I had a first as I spooned up this triggerfish.  I had never caught one and was told how great they are to eat.   Lucky for the fish, as the season doesn't reopen until tomorrow.  

Being so calm and sunny we were done in by noon by the heat and headed back to Rock Landing.  The air conditioning provided by the 35 mph ride back in felt great!

Dock Trash Red

7.16.2013

We were gonna go out and do some evening river fishing, but as we were preparing to leave a storm blew up and that was that.

But, since Nancy had to work tomorrow, and she hasn't fished since last Monday, we proceeded down to the dock to do our dock trash fishing trip.

We were fishing and talking to some neighbors who were telling us about an alligator that had crossed the road by Patty and Willie's lot, when the rod about got yanked out of my hand.

I handed it to Nancy, who proceeded to land the biggest fish we had ever caught of our dock.

The water now has a deep tannic stain due to all of the rain that has occurred and this fish took on the dark colors of the waters.  A beautiful deep copper color and two spots on this side as a bonus.

Grunts? Yes! Grouper? Not So Much.

7.8-7.10.2013

Water: 82 degrees.

Patty and Willie made it down to examine their real estate holdings and we fished for three days.

Day one was a trip off to Ochlockonee Shoals trying to catch a trout or two and then possibly a cobia on the way back to the hill.

I managed a nice spanish mackerel.

The trout were a little indifferent, but one went in the box.  We hit a little black sea bass hole coming back and caught a keeper there.

We caught some pins and hit the poles coming back towards the river and Pat caught a small cobia and had a bigger one break her off on the tripod.

Tuesday and Wednesday held promise of smooth seas for the first time in a while so we planned our off shore jaunts to try and catch some grouper.

We fished in the area Willie calls the fingers.  The water depth was between 50 and 65 feet.

Day one featured a grunt as a whole cooler came home filled with tasty filets.

One keeper red grouper came with them which Pat mustered to the boat for her first keeper grouper ever.

Three more were hooked up but battled back down to the rocky bottom to break lines and hearts.

Wednesday dawned with very calm seas and new numbers.  We hustled out quickly after a storm delayed our trip for a little bit.

As we neared our destination the seas were smooth but storms were rumbling.

Pat struggled on a few fish to get up off the bottom.

They won the battle.

The grunts bit a little bit and Willie hammered this non keeper gag.

But got back with this nice red grouper caught after he pulled an octopus from the bottom.

As the storms were nearing we decided to high tail it back to the ramp, only to be stopped short of Rock Landing.  We ditched into the Mashes Sands Ramp and were rescued by Nancy as this storm approached.

Our visitors left today, convinced that their real estate portfolio was growing as planned.

As we loaded a whole 18 gallon trash bag with vacuum packed filets, I was hoping they could  get back soon.

Maybe Pat can catch an even bigger grouper next time.  Or scallop.  Or flounder gig.