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.

Chasing the Over Harvested Red Snapper

6.25.13

The oh so kind NOAA allowed a 28 day season to chase the "over harvested" red snapper.  With three days left in the season I was able to arrange a trip out to try and get some for the table.

Larry and Phil were staying at St. Joe and came over the Carrabelle to try and get some too.

If Phil is here there is a no doubt a tropical disturbance in our future so I was wary to his arrival.

We headed out towards V tower through some rough seas through East Pass, but getting on plane as we cleared the sandy shoals entering the pass.

We dropped down near the Navy tower but only a couple of light taps greeted us at the 70' drop.

The decision was made to motor another 10 miles to the deeper 100' of water and the day turned into a catch fest as the fish were enjoying deeper depth.

Many small under sized snapper came aboard.

We kept banging away catching lane snapper, beeliners, red grouper, king mackerel, sea bass,sharks and of course the larger red snapper.

While no giants were brought to the box, I did catch a nice 24" red snapper.  I let Phil hold it for me when we got back near the hill.  He was feeling bad not setting up on any biguns.

Larry caught this nice smoker on squid on the bottom.  Go figure.

We filled the fish box with a lot of color.

As you can see from the pictures, we had to wait out a thunderstorm at the mouth of the Carrabelle River.

But, thankfully, we didn't get wet.

It was nice chasing the red snapper with a good group of guys that enjoy fishing at the Forgotten Coast.

Ochlockonee Shoals Drift

6.24.13

Water temp: 85

The idea was to go to the shoals, do some drifts in 10 feet of water, catch some trout for company coming in, go catch some pinfish, jump a tarpon on the pinfish and come back to the ramp.

Everything went fine except the tarpon part, but at least a shark gave us a cheap thrill.

We caught 2 eating size trout and one 21" trout on the drifts at the shoals.  Caught 4-5 under sized trout also.

Nancy was banging the bottom with gulp on a jig head and I was throwing a Fat Boy.

I have used it in the past but didn't have any trout to show for it.  While working at the store a guy came in and told me I had been working it way too fast.

He said to count it down to 10 or 15 and just do a twitch, kind of like fishing for spots at Lanier in February with jerk baits.

The Fat Boy falls back down at every pause and when the trout want it they really eat it.

This nice 21" really fought hard and after a good battle, came on board.

Gonna pick up a couple more of them today at Academy Sports as mine got chewed up pretty good yesterday.

Inshore run

6.10.13

Nanacy and I did a little inshore run. I heard of some gator trout being caught and wanted to look for some tarpon.

We did get some trout and had the biggest one break off. We had a shark eat my badonadonk and take it too.

This trout got a taste of Nick's Wicad swim bait.

Bluefish were schooling and fun to catch.  This one came aboard after a good fight.

We went down to Mud Cove to look for tarpon rolling.  We did a slow troll and saw plenty of bait, but no tarpon rolling.  

Maybe next week!

First Ling of 2013

6.2 and 6.3 2013

Water Temp: 82 deg.

The past week we were excited that the forecast called for calm seas all week.

Er, not so much.  The change in forecast to high seas at the beginning of the week forced us to give it a try Sunday.

We packed our stuff with offshore in mind, but had some inshore gear also ready if it was too rough for us.

We made it out past the two marker and said enough.

We put some pinfish on board and starting throwing them at our favorite markers.

I managed this non keeper but pretty cobia at the first stop.

We came inshore and had a few ladyfish poop in the boat.

Monday we decided to stay inshore and caught a nice 20" trout to replace the one that fell into the panko and butter the night before.

I was giving the bird to all of the other fish who refused to bite today.

All in all it has been a bit slow for us this year.  

Enough to keep us in fish so I guess that is good.

Summer seems to have arrived so it will be early morning fishing until the fall now.

Schmoakin!

5.23.13

David and I headed out to some grouper numbers he had that were good two weeks ago.

Of course the switch has been flipped and the temp this week has skyrocketed to the mid 90's.

Two weeks ago the water temperature was in the low seventies, as we hit the water yesterday morning it was 82 degrees.

We plugged the numbers in and after 3 hours of fishing we had nary a grouper in the box.  Only two sharks grabbed our baits.

So, David kept wanting to catch an kingfish.  So, I said let's go to 24 marker.

About two miles south of 24 we started seeing bait.  The first pod had two nice kings milling around.

David rigged a pinfish with a stinger hook rig and soon was saying, "I'm getting spooled!", and the boat was placed in gear to help him gather some line.

Soon a happy angler was lifting a 20 lb. king in the boat.

We found a few other pods of bait and fished them, but to no avail and decided to call it a day.

David texted me later in the evening and said his grill was fired up.

Clam Bar

5.16.13

Nancy waded through a bunch of lady fish and spanish mackerel to catch this nice trout this morning off the clam bar.

We caught a lot of lady fish and mackerel but the trout remained scarce.

It was good to get out after being bed ridden with a cold.