uh oh.. "feelin gooood" to no reports? never a good sign but, someone just upgraded their plastic sportfishing vessel: GREEN MACHINE hope to get it slimed this weekend
Well, it wasn't the best of days to go fishing. The sun was out, but that's where it all ends. Seas went from 4' t0 7' by afternoon and the water temps dropped from 57F to 45F. Needless to say, it was cold, bumpy and wet out there. The SeaBass weren't hitting and I must have picked the worst spot on the boat to fish. Those SE winds brought in a lot of very cold ocean water. So cold in fact, that Cod and Tautog were coming over the rail faster than the Sea Bass. Tog is out of season and I didn't hit on any Cod. I did get 7 Sea Bass but only one keeper. To show you how bad it was for me, all of my shorts were just under 12.5". I'm talking 12.25, 12.00 and so forth. Came home with 1 Sea Bass, 2 nice Ling and a new respect for NOAA weather forecasts. Any time I see seas forecast over 4 ft, count me out. The water looked like one of those old b/w "Victory At Sea" WWII episodes you get on discs.. Well, I've had days like this before and I'm sure I will again. I'll wait another week or two before going inshore again. In the meantime, looks like sweetwater fishing until the water warms back up to 60F. Fish On!!!
Man I saw that and I immediately thought of you but I didn't think you lived on the Big Island http://www.scrippsmedia.com/ktnv/no...n-fatally-impaled-by-swordfish-305566871.html
The irony is strong. I sure as hell wouldn't jump in to spear any kind of Marlin or Sailfish. I've seen my share of those things gashing the side of boats when being brought up. A friend told me that a Marlins tip went straight through the side of his Wahler and they couldn't get it loose. So they trolled back to the harbor with this fish hanging from the side until a Tiger shark took a huge bite out of the thing. lol
looks like an Amberjack. Ones here get bad parisitic worms in the tail section when we catch them in the summer time, but not in winter. We got one one that was prob 15lbs on sunday. When I went to clean him..... speakin of... went way out looking for Big Blue on sunday (my brother was visiting from NYC and we got an invite on a friend's sportfish) left the dock around 5am and headed out 60miles A long chug out into the short period 3-5 seas, then pretty slow fishing. 1 Blackfin tuna, missed some smaller dolphin, lots o beers. until we came a cross a school of peanut dolphin, that we may have left alone if we had some fish in the box (and not a huge fuel bill) We took out the spin tackle and put about 15 in the boat. Then we trolled around the area thinking someone bigger would be around to eat those guys, so we put out some bigger lures..... almost. A nice size Blue briefly made an appearance to check out our spread, but didnt eat. oh well Stopped and dropped on some bottom marks on the way in and grabbed some pink porgies, trigger fish, that amberjack and I pulled up 1 solid snapper then we packed up and headed west for a long trek, and made it to the marina rt before sunset. Cleaned fish and the boat and got home at 10:30. long day, but fun. yest. morn, took my bro out on the kayaks to do some skinny water fishing. Tossed plugs to some ladyfish at 1st, but then moved into the shallows to find some reds. Pretty slow (we missed the early morn bite as we got out a lil late (I was movin slow after sunday) I did catch a flounder, so I did put some slime on the new yak. It's an improvement over my old one. I can stand to sight cast while drifting in the current. new seat is nice on my lowerback too
yessir... this place has it's perks speakin of, I decided to slack some today and take the kayak out for 1st light full moon flood tide to hopefully get a topwater lure blasted. as soon as I left the launch there was a big redfish tail 20' from the ramp...... I wasnt ready/expecting that, and I spooked him. Tossed a Mirrolure "top Dog Jr" where I caught that big trout last time and after a few hooked up a 14.5" trout (.5" shy) tide continued to fill in so I headed across the ICW to a shallow grass flat that thought would be flooded. Shit was getin blasted. I did get a redfish (about 17") on the same topwater plug, but after that that was it. they went so deep in the grass (looking for crabs?) that I couldnt get to 'em, but could here them splashing all over the place just out of sight. awesome and frustrating at the same time. called it around 10:30 and paddled back to the truck and do some "work". not a bad morning
Cman, Dont make any travel plans this year if you want to bring home the fillets of an "endangered " Red Snapper but I promise you that you'll be able to catch plenty http://safmc.net/announcements/6515...nnounces-red-snapper-will-remain-closed-south :champface:
Glad I just bought a new badass 40-100# Penn Bluewater Carnage bottom rod and a spool of 80# braid for a 114H
Amazingly, they haven't put in draconian measures like this for Stripers up our way yet. Same for Fluke and SeaBass. They cut the SeaBass season down by a week and last year, they upped the size limit on Fluke to 18" and a bag limit of 5. I can understand if they just close the season up here for Fluke and Stripers though as we have other options but I don't think the commercial interests, especially down in the lower Chesapeake would go for that. Stinky, look at it this way. If they close the season for a year or two, imagine the fishing in 2017. By then, Florida fishing will be at the top of my bucket list!
Generally I agree with this line of thinking, and lean towards the "conservation minded" side of thing, but this has gone on for three years now (sans 1-2 "mini-season") weekends. Not that it's terrible if accurate, but there are SOOOO many snapper down there in NE FL. We dont even get a snapper weekend this year. We're allowed to keep grouper, but I'd say there's almost 20-1 snapper/grouper. I'll go out of my way to use BIG baits to keep away snapper to find a grouper............... what do I catch? Hint: They're red and shake their head the whole way up. They set the regs as a statewide blanket. Florida has a ALOT of coastline with radically different conditions from north-south. We have the most Red Snapper out of anywhere in FL. Maybe if they set up seasonal spawning season closures, or to commercial that would make sense. / end rant but when they do open it back up, there will be some big boys down there.........so if you do, ask what boats / charters to setup. (better to spend the extra $ on a private smaller boat (center console) charter than sit on a headboat). They're out of reach on my kayak
I just got back from Cabelas. Took a good long look at a Shimano Stella SW5000. Man, what a reel. Too bad it costs so much damn money. I still might save my pennies and perhaps get it for myself at Christmas. Wifey already said she'd kill me if I got it anytime soon so, if she does, I want you to report this to CSI Harrisburg..
Ha, only if you leave it to me in your will................ There's no way I'd pay that $ for a spinning reel (even I could afford it). If you want an offshore spinner, a Baitrunner 6500 or 8000 is the way to go (thinking of getting one of those) Great for flatlining live baits on the surface as a 2nd rod, as the fish will hardly feel any drag (and you can hear that clicker scream) until you "lock him up", but I was even using one to bottom fish little guys (triggers, pink porgies, vermillions) last weekend