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capt hoop · #1 08-02-2013, 06:13 AM

The first day was a tuna trip. The bite has been very early or very late. I figured a 3 fish limit would be easy and then we could move in for other fish. Our first 4 fish came in bit in half by sharks or barracuda. I moved out to another rig 22 miles away and finally got a just barely legal.

The dirty water moved in and the bite ended. In lieu of running further out I ran back to where we fought the sharks knowing the tuna were there. Captain Eddie had arrived just before me, from a lot farther out, with only one in the box. He marked them and jigged up a 100 class yellowfin. That kid has all the luck. I marked them also and put a 35ish in the box.

That was it for the both of us for the day. My next day with John was an inshore trip. I had not been to the islands yet this year and had heard good and bad reports. Figured I would give it a go seeing the seas were favorable. I could always go in another direction the next day if things did not work out well. Once there a few were along the island where most set up. I shut down a good distance out and used the trolling motor. I was casting my Voo Doo shrimp until I had a solid hit. I missed it but had 3 other hits. They were here. I put down the power poll and we went to work catching. John"s first trout was small but legal and we kept it.

In no time we had limited out. Although we had live shrimp we found the dead shrimp and plastics worked just as well or even better. Once the limit of trout was in the box I ran to another place with almost clean water and moving good. Instantly we found out that the point was full of redfish.

No bulls but good eating size. He fought fish until his arms got sore. We caught constantly until he decided it was time to go in and clean his catch. He was ready for lunch anyway.

Instead of going in the opposite direction and run the redfish all day we went back to the island and messed up the trout again in very short order. From there I hit the beaches and started on the bull reds. He had a ball with them on light tackle but the ones I was into were very big. we landed this one on regular inshore tackle. It was right at 27 inches.

After that I broke out a cobia rod I keep in the boat.

This guy tipped the scales at 20 pounds.

After that we moved into the marsh for so reasonable redfish. Once we started fishing the marsh he noticed a problem with his ankle and had to go in and go see a doctor because of it. We never had a chance to hunt the redfish that day.

On the fourth day we were to just make a morning try for tuna and then back in for some other fishing. I found a patch of grass and picked up some bait. We marked the fish and out went the live baits. I also set out a bomb. The only hit I had from a tuna threw the hook after a very short run. It hit on live bait I was trolling. I jigged, chunked, and live baited. I tossed frenzy poppers at the ones busting but myself nor anybody else got a sniff after 9:00. At 11:30 we changed tactics and experimented with some near shore rig fishing. You know what we found!!!

We also got the first amberjack of the season (a day early) so it went back along with it's sunburned cousin.

With all the fighting and putting back of fish we still had a box of some nice mangroves for the day.

I did another day when nothing was happening anywhere so I hit something on the way in and found some mangroves and a triple tail. Wish amberjack were open then.

Life is Good!
Fishing is not a matter of life or death. It's more important than that.

CAPT HOOP -- OUR FREEDOM