Posted by: CAPT. HOOP
Not a bad week - 03/25/17 10:03 PM
I had a Saturday morning free and my friend Bobby from La 23 Bar B Q came with me for a few hours. It was a long time since he had wet a line. It felt good to him to put the first trout in the box.
We had a good morning and put some nice trout in the box. His partner Aron was also out there with his own boat and we had a fish cleaning party at my place around noon.
The next day I had Add and Shelly on their boat in search of tuna. It was very foggy and the ride out was not fun even though we waited for an extra hour before deciding to run. Even with that I relied heavily on the Garmin electronics. There was a late bite the day before so we were not expecting much early. Once at the tuna grounds the action began. Sharks and kings were collecting hooks. We were fortunate enough to get a circle hook to work right and landed 3 kingfish.
The bonito added to the action and we were busy. Add was the first to hook up to a yellowfin. There is little doubt when a tuna hits the bait. After a brief but good battle we had our first yellowfin on ice.
It did not take very long before we had another tuna find our offering. This time it was Shelly's turn to do battle. It turned out to be a good size blackfin.
As our morning went on the hook tying class was going well. We were getting bit off by toothy critters very fast as we continued our tuna quest. Shelly had the hot hand hooking kings and landing them but this time as soon as the line started screaming I knew she had a decent yellowfin. She was soon to prove my suspicions right as I sunk a gaff into it.
A while later we lost a blackfin before I could get a gaff to it. The bite was slowing and they wanted to get a few state water red snapper so we packed it up and headed in for some bottom dunking. We first found some small snapper. I was holding the boat in place while they fished. Eventually we had our first keeper at 18 and a half inches. Once the guys found out we were dropping food down they all came out of the rig to feed to feed. We wasted no time putting our 6 in the box and heading in. Our 18.5 incher is next to our 31 incher that was our best snapper of the day.
The next day we wanted to get an early start. For some reason they were a bit slow getting to the boat. There was absolutely no fog. I was waiting for them enjoying the view from my office.
Once again we hit the tuna grounds we were in good shape with a lot of good bait but conditions had changed over night. Nobody was getting much and the seas were building as the day progressed. Seeing it was the last day for amberjack and they are one of Add's favorite fish we decided to see if we could find one or two of them. The limit is one per person and the season is now closed for the rest of the year. As it turned out the tuna bite was late. With our slower boat it would not have been a good idea to stretch the time for some tuna.
We hit a few rigs looking for Amberjack. When we got to our second targeted rig we unfortunately found a monster red snapper. Add has one of those setups that drops the fish back down to 150 feet, stabilizes it, and releases it. The snapper was so bloated we had to add extra weight for it to go down. About 100 feet down the fish got revived and began fighting back very well. Before the setup got to 150 feet and released the fish I knew by the fight it was in good shape and good to go. I like that release tool.
On our very next drop we get one that is going for the rig and diving deep. I start pulling the fish out with the boat trying not to break it off. At times I had to slow the boat down to be sure I was not caught in the rig. This fish wanted back in the rig very bad and was determined to get there. I came out well over a hundred yards from the rig before I was comfortable enough with the amount of line out and the angle to allow Add to fight this hog. Now it was his turn to get this stud to the boat. For some reason although the fish was a very good size it fought a lot harder than others that size have before.
We wanted to try for some others and a crew boat came in so we had to get away from there. We made a quick stop for state water snappers. We had to go through some shorts. Being in about 60 feet the ones we released were unharmed. Once we had our limit we called it and headed in.
On my 75th birthday my neighbor and I went out back in the Empire area for the morning. We found a few trout and a3 redfish for the box. My treat of the day was this nice 31 incher that I released after the picture. It gave me a great battle in 1 to 3 feet of water on light tacke..
Life is Good!
We had a good morning and put some nice trout in the box. His partner Aron was also out there with his own boat and we had a fish cleaning party at my place around noon.
The next day I had Add and Shelly on their boat in search of tuna. It was very foggy and the ride out was not fun even though we waited for an extra hour before deciding to run. Even with that I relied heavily on the Garmin electronics. There was a late bite the day before so we were not expecting much early. Once at the tuna grounds the action began. Sharks and kings were collecting hooks. We were fortunate enough to get a circle hook to work right and landed 3 kingfish.
The bonito added to the action and we were busy. Add was the first to hook up to a yellowfin. There is little doubt when a tuna hits the bait. After a brief but good battle we had our first yellowfin on ice.
It did not take very long before we had another tuna find our offering. This time it was Shelly's turn to do battle. It turned out to be a good size blackfin.
As our morning went on the hook tying class was going well. We were getting bit off by toothy critters very fast as we continued our tuna quest. Shelly had the hot hand hooking kings and landing them but this time as soon as the line started screaming I knew she had a decent yellowfin. She was soon to prove my suspicions right as I sunk a gaff into it.
A while later we lost a blackfin before I could get a gaff to it. The bite was slowing and they wanted to get a few state water red snapper so we packed it up and headed in for some bottom dunking. We first found some small snapper. I was holding the boat in place while they fished. Eventually we had our first keeper at 18 and a half inches. Once the guys found out we were dropping food down they all came out of the rig to feed to feed. We wasted no time putting our 6 in the box and heading in. Our 18.5 incher is next to our 31 incher that was our best snapper of the day.
The next day we wanted to get an early start. For some reason they were a bit slow getting to the boat. There was absolutely no fog. I was waiting for them enjoying the view from my office.
Once again we hit the tuna grounds we were in good shape with a lot of good bait but conditions had changed over night. Nobody was getting much and the seas were building as the day progressed. Seeing it was the last day for amberjack and they are one of Add's favorite fish we decided to see if we could find one or two of them. The limit is one per person and the season is now closed for the rest of the year. As it turned out the tuna bite was late. With our slower boat it would not have been a good idea to stretch the time for some tuna.
We hit a few rigs looking for Amberjack. When we got to our second targeted rig we unfortunately found a monster red snapper. Add has one of those setups that drops the fish back down to 150 feet, stabilizes it, and releases it. The snapper was so bloated we had to add extra weight for it to go down. About 100 feet down the fish got revived and began fighting back very well. Before the setup got to 150 feet and released the fish I knew by the fight it was in good shape and good to go. I like that release tool.
On our very next drop we get one that is going for the rig and diving deep. I start pulling the fish out with the boat trying not to break it off. At times I had to slow the boat down to be sure I was not caught in the rig. This fish wanted back in the rig very bad and was determined to get there. I came out well over a hundred yards from the rig before I was comfortable enough with the amount of line out and the angle to allow Add to fight this hog. Now it was his turn to get this stud to the boat. For some reason although the fish was a very good size it fought a lot harder than others that size have before.
We wanted to try for some others and a crew boat came in so we had to get away from there. We made a quick stop for state water snappers. We had to go through some shorts. Being in about 60 feet the ones we released were unharmed. Once we had our limit we called it and headed in.
On my 75th birthday my neighbor and I went out back in the Empire area for the morning. We found a few trout and a3 redfish for the box. My treat of the day was this nice 31 incher that I released after the picture. It gave me a great battle in 1 to 3 feet of water on light tacke..
Life is Good!
