Meat Trip

9.3.12

Hot and no wind, finally.

Headed out with Larry and Phil.  They came down from N. Ga. to do a meat run and the fish didn't disappoint.

Being the first boat out of Lanark this morning, it was smooth sailing to K Tower, the Sea Hunt was running 30 mph with a full load.

On my second cast to the tower with a buck tail with a white twister tail attached, a big cobia decided he wanted it for breakfast.

I managed to get him about 15 feet from the tower and then he figured out he was hooked and ripped the 65 lb. power pro line into the barnacle encrusted tower and that was that.

I saw him swimming back and forth all morning, taunting me with the jig hanging out of his mouth like some type of award.

Phil had a keeper cobia bust him off at the boat.  Barracuda were on the prowl all morning slashing the bait against the tower.

We decided to head over to some numbers about 3 miles from K tower and as we were pulling over the hole and saw what looked like the christmas tree of snapper on Phil's Lowrance.

We pulled over the spot and the look was confirmed.

We caught 4 red snapper off this spot.  Ah a month or two too late.

Larry's Snapper Coming Up To The Boat

We managed to place a bunch of pink mouth snapper, black sea bass and porgies in the cooler here and to a lesser degree on several places on the way back in to the hill.

We stopped at the cut on the east end of Dog Island and caught a few nice blues that were schooling there and put a couple in the cooler.

We also played with the big ladyfish schools that had acres of bait frothing trying to get wings as the ladies were gorging themselves on a Labor Day feast.

Got to the hill, loaded the boat and headed to Carrabelle  for the cleaning fest, boat and fish.

Great day on the water with two NE Georgians.

Goliath Grouper Sampling Video

Well, no fishing report.

Went up to Charleston last week to visit Hunter and with the stormy weather around we just haven't made it out.

Now we get to prepare for Hurricane Isaac, so, probably no fishing this week either.

But, yesterday I got to speak with the folks that are doing the goliath grouper sampling in the Gulf at the FSU marine lab.

We keep trying to find them hooks that won't be bent by these monster fish.

They have this video on you tube.

Check it out, pretty fascinating.  (If you like giant fish).

I have embedded it to the right of the blog.

Bluefish Are Eating!

8.14.12

We headed out to look for some groceries and a tarpon on the incoming tide this morning.

The tide didn't want to come in very quickly.  We spent about an hour trying to lure a trout or two from the bar in front of the river.  We only could collect two small ones and while fishing the bar I kept seeing the birds out off the clam bar.

So, we headed out there to try and get our line stretched, which we did.

Nice blues in the 2-4 lb. range were feeding on small rain minnows and under them were small Jack Cravalle's.

I kept one blue for fish tacos and we tired of catching them and headed down the coast to look for tarpon.

We went all the way to Mud Cove, but saw no tarpon rolling.

Looking to the skies we saw storm clouds gathering, and not wanting to get in a storm again, we headed in.

Yep, the storm hit while cleaning the fish and boat.

What a stormy summer after TS Debbie.

Shopping for Blackened Redfish

8.7.12

Nancy informed me we ate the last filet of grouper last night and the freezer was bare of fish.

So, we went out for a quick shopping trip to the outer bar of the Ochlockonee River.

The tide was rushing out this morning after a really high tide.

I managed a puppy red on a Gulp Jerk Shad and had some little guys pecking at it.

Soon I felt the pick up of a bigger red and the battle was on.  The fish really fought hard in the swift current.

After a few back and forths behind and beside the boat I finally got him to the point where Nancy could scoop him out.

He measured 26 63/64" which made him a keeper and not the dreaded over slot red.

Nice Double Spot Tail

Into the cooler he went.

We visited a couple of our other inner bars but no luck and decided to pull off the water before the storms hit again.

Our grocery shopping was over and now we are looking for our blackening spices.

Yum.

20/0 Hook Bent Straight

8.3.12

I've been working the past few weeks at AMS in Medart.

They are a local marine supply store and bait shop 319.  I am learning  a lot, especially about the local commercial fishing.

I also see pictures and talk to people about their fishing experiences and all this job does is make my want to fish more.

There is a gentleman that orders special hooks for catching Goliath grouper (jewfish).  He studies them for the state of Florida.

I have not met him yet, but I've heard of his tales of the monster Goliath grouper.

He orders 20/0 hooks at the store for them.  Basically, the hook is the size of a beer bottle, maybe bigger.

Today, when I came to work, the guys that work at the store showed me these STRAIGHTENED 20/0 hooks.   They are estimating the Jewfish must weigh 800 lbs. or so.

Check it out.

Now that would be a battle, or should I say,a losing battle!

Hey, Nancy Let Me Catch One Today!

7.31.12

We headed out today to look for cobia and tarpon, but ended up with a 12 pound overslot redfish.

We had a short window of opportunity, the weathermen said a squall line was going to set up around noon and they were correct, except in came earlier than expected.

We caught some bait out at two flat and hit the 2 post and tripod looking for some cobias, but to no avail.

We headed towards Bald Point to look for bait and as we go near Lighthouse Point the wind was really whipping around the corner and storms were building back at the mouth of the Ochlockonee River.

I saw some pelicans diving on bait about a mile offshore and eased over to see if tarpon were in the mix.

Bait was getting busted in the swells that was forming and I thought they were Jack Crevalle.

I threw my DOA Bait Buster in the mix and the first cast brought this nice red to the boat, much to our surprise.

We had to leave after this photo was taken as the weather was turning quickly.  We made a couple of drifts in front of Tradewinds as we watched the storm start to gather momentum

Nancy was shocked as a huge ray jumped out of the water right beside her and flopped beside the boat.

I managed a big sail cat, the rains came, and we headed in to be greeted by pitch black skies and heavy lightning and rain as I finished cleaning the boat.

Wicad!

7.25.12

I went solo today in front of Piney Island and off Mashes Sands point.  Looking for tarpon all morning.  It was very hot and steamy today, I was thinking I was back in ATL.

Only saw one roll today, with a few LY's in the mix they should be there soon.

I have started throwing the Wicad swim bait that my buddy Nick builds.

Yesterday I had some swipes from some big fish, I don't think they were tarpon.

Today, though a black tip shark and a trout wanted some Wicad-ness.

Nice swim bait Nick!!