moore_rb
Stay Thirsty My Friends
Just got back from 4 days of la playa, cerveza, and pescando...
We fished on Father's Day, and the Monday after. Parrothead Pesacador (Kim) joined us on Sunday.
The Father's day weather was ideal, but the water was dark green for over 50 miles out, so we stayed in the 120-150 foot depth zone and hit the grouper rocks. We had a couple little 30 inch hammerheads around the boat a couple times which was cool to see.
Fishing-wise, the water quality even made making bait a chore- there was not a greenback to be found anywhere, so we collected up a bunch of bay bass and some 12-20 inch corvina and went fishing.
Luckily, it seems Gulf Grouper do not care what color the water is.
By 2pm we had 4 grouper on the boat (one 30, one 50, and 2 big ole 70 plus hogs), and had broken off 2 others; and then Kim's pole goes off. As we shuffled about getting ready to bring another Baya aboard, the fish takes off straight out, peeling drag like a 200 pound tuna. I'm thinking to myself "That's weird, I've never seen a grouper do that before" while I'm screaming at Kim to keep pumping and winding and stop crying like a girl (which is the standard abuse that everyone gets subjected to when they fish aboard my boat)
Finally, after about 25 minutes, up comes Kim's fish- a big, flat, pissed off 150-200 pound Stingray. Sticking him with the gaff didn't seem to make him any more mellow, but he had a 6 dollar hook in his mouth, and we wanted it back.
Our plan was to turn that bad-boy into scallops, so we secured him with a flying gaff with the intention of towing him until he croaked so we could bring him aboard safely, but he managed to roll off the gaff and swam away (probably more pissed than ever)...
Once the stingray chaos had officially subsided, we managed to boat one more large grouper, then ran for port in time to watch the end of the US Open, and Game3 of the NBA Finals...
Monday morning, we ran back out and executed the same game plan, but the weather was not nearly as friendly. By noon, we had one Grouper, and another break off, but the wind really had the seas rocking, so we called it early and booked a retreat faster than the French after Waterloo...
All in all, another really fun 2 days of fishing. Expensive, but fun- I had a pole in a holder that snagged the rocks with the drag locked down and POP! - it broke right behind the reel seat, and the whole enchilada (75% of my Daiwa Eliminator boat rod, and my Saltist Big Game lever drag reel) took flight and is now resting on the bottom somewhere out there, leaving me with only the 18 inch butt section... joy.
:hateit:
Will post some pics later tonight after I get them off the camera....
We fished on Father's Day, and the Monday after. Parrothead Pesacador (Kim) joined us on Sunday.
The Father's day weather was ideal, but the water was dark green for over 50 miles out, so we stayed in the 120-150 foot depth zone and hit the grouper rocks. We had a couple little 30 inch hammerheads around the boat a couple times which was cool to see.
Fishing-wise, the water quality even made making bait a chore- there was not a greenback to be found anywhere, so we collected up a bunch of bay bass and some 12-20 inch corvina and went fishing.
Luckily, it seems Gulf Grouper do not care what color the water is.
By 2pm we had 4 grouper on the boat (one 30, one 50, and 2 big ole 70 plus hogs), and had broken off 2 others; and then Kim's pole goes off. As we shuffled about getting ready to bring another Baya aboard, the fish takes off straight out, peeling drag like a 200 pound tuna. I'm thinking to myself "That's weird, I've never seen a grouper do that before" while I'm screaming at Kim to keep pumping and winding and stop crying like a girl (which is the standard abuse that everyone gets subjected to when they fish aboard my boat)
Finally, after about 25 minutes, up comes Kim's fish- a big, flat, pissed off 150-200 pound Stingray. Sticking him with the gaff didn't seem to make him any more mellow, but he had a 6 dollar hook in his mouth, and we wanted it back.
Our plan was to turn that bad-boy into scallops, so we secured him with a flying gaff with the intention of towing him until he croaked so we could bring him aboard safely, but he managed to roll off the gaff and swam away (probably more pissed than ever)...
Once the stingray chaos had officially subsided, we managed to boat one more large grouper, then ran for port in time to watch the end of the US Open, and Game3 of the NBA Finals...
Monday morning, we ran back out and executed the same game plan, but the weather was not nearly as friendly. By noon, we had one Grouper, and another break off, but the wind really had the seas rocking, so we called it early and booked a retreat faster than the French after Waterloo...
All in all, another really fun 2 days of fishing. Expensive, but fun- I had a pole in a holder that snagged the rocks with the drag locked down and POP! - it broke right behind the reel seat, and the whole enchilada (75% of my Daiwa Eliminator boat rod, and my Saltist Big Game lever drag reel) took flight and is now resting on the bottom somewhere out there, leaving me with only the 18 inch butt section... joy.
:hateit:
Will post some pics later tonight after I get them off the camera....
strich:
