|
Offshore Fishing Discussion Discuss everything bluewater from pelagics to reef fish here! |
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
|
||||
|
||||
Last snapper trip for 2012
We left my house at 5am with my neighbor, David Hernandez and his father-n-law "Big L" Reagan of Egan. We stopped in Kaplan for our usual breakfast grab, and headed south to Rollover landing hoping to dodge the thunderstorms. We hit he gulf to find a nice 1' swell and were able to run 35mph crusing south to the snapper grounds. About 5 miles out, we find large mats of grass and we stopped to check them for tripletail. With the heavy clouds and low sun, it was too dark to see any so I told them lets go get our snapper and we will check the mats on the way back this afternoon. We arrived at the platform in 90' of water that we had the bruiser snapper at last weekend to find nothing wanting to play. This was David's first snapper trip and I wanted him to fight some good fish so we made several moves looking for big fish, but as luck would have it, we only found the small ones throwing back numerous 20" snapper after venting them. I then switched tactics and caught some live bait on sabiki rigs and things changed for the better! It was a hoot to watch everyone w/ rods bent in half while I worked the deck. Then, my favorite thing made an apperance, the first ling of the year. I had to entice him, but after a few passes, he finally ate my jig. I set the hook and he sounded ripping 100' of line from the Calcutta 400 in record time. I handed the rod to David so he can feel the difference in the fight. Several times he got the nice fish boatside, only to watch him strip off line like it was nothing. Finally, after a good fight, I got the fish gaffed and in the box. We moved around looking for ling, but only found one other one that would not eat anything we threw at it. I tried all my little things I could think of, and it stayed around the boat for 20 minutes, but would only eat chum, nothing with a hook in it. So we ended up 1 for 2 on cobia and started in. We passed several nice grass patches on the way in, but didn't stop to check them for chicken dolphin since I wanted some tripletail, which is like crack to me. Unfortunately, the afternoon storms were in full force on the way in and we had to drive around a couple of them. By the time we got back to the large mats, we found them mostly broken up and the water was a little choppy. We were able to locate 2 nice tripletail, but we came up short on closing the deal. So we ended with a nice limit of snapper, one nice ling, a nice blacktip, and a small king that my guest wanted to keep. This was one of my best years ever for quality snapper, but one of the wierdest for weather. I made a total of 4 snapper trips and have enough to last the year for sure. Now, it's time to get back on the specks and tripletail! |
#2
|
||||
|
||||
That's some nice snaps
|
#3
|
||||
|
||||
Looks like you guys did great!! Nice meat haul!!
I was in the Pathfinder that launched right after you guys. We only went out 25 miles and 60 ft of water. I wish we would have gone further becasue we couldn't get away from the 15" snapper. We must have caught 50 of them. We caught several black tips too but nothing big enough to keep. We were 0 for 2 on the ling. We had a 40 to 50 lb ling on the line and it got tangled in the motor and cut the line on the prop and the other spit the hook at the boat before we could get it in. We only ended the day with 4 keeper snapper. |
#4
|
||||
|
||||
Quote:
|
#5
|
||||
|
||||
Looks like I should of followed you. We ended up catching 3 hogs Sunday morning.
|
#6
|
||||
|
||||
Did ya'll get scared of the weather Saturday. I almost tried pulling a speck trip to BL on Sat and a snapper trip on Sunday, but she wouldn't have it.
|
#7
|
||||
|
||||
That's my kin folk right there. I hope Big Dave didn't drink all your beer! That boy can put em down.
|
#8
|
||||
|
||||
Big Dave can fish with me anytime..................he brought his own beer and cleaned the boat while I cleaned the fish!!!!!!!! Lots of "customers" I take on trips never lift a finger to help at the end of the day.
|
#9
|
||||
|
||||
Quote:
That's a good dude for sure. |
#10
|
||||
|
||||
Quote:
|
#11
|
||||
|
||||
Quote:
|
#12
|
||||
|
||||
Very nice
|
#13
|
|||
|
|||
NICE!!!
|
#14
|
||||
|
||||
Great post man!
We made six trips and brought nice fish in every trip. only one ling though. I would love to pick up the gas tap and learn how to spot and catch triple tail from you. T-bic and I have yet to boat one. and with us so close to Lake Borne, I have to figure this out!! |
#15
|
||||
|
||||
NICE
|
Bookmarks |
|
|