Another foggy morning. I was deckhanding for Mike Jeffcoat today. We did not get into fog untill we were a short way down tiger pass. I have been here like this before and turned around and ran red pass. Mike has hit at the mouth of red pass in swells due to the sand bar out in front of the pass so he continued down tiger pass cautiously. We found a Freeman off the channel and he had just gotten out of the mud back into the channel. He tucked in behind us. A bit further down the pass it was our turn to go a bit off and hit mud on the edge. Once we got off that we made it out. We picked up bait near south west pass and headed south into a very uncomfortable head sea. After about 12 miles of pounding we changed course and headed to another oil rig only to find very dirty water. This gave us a better angle for our targeted rig. By this time one of the 4 was sick and he never recovered all day.
Once there we found out all the pounding messed up some of the electrical connections. Our fish finder and live well went out amongst other things. We still had a few live baits so we set up with all the other boats. After about an hour of live baiting and nobody else getting anything we set up chunking a bit out of the way of the live bait guys so we would not interfear with them. The first line in gets hit and we are on the board with a small yellowfin.
The live bait guys are getting sharks and we went another hour before we get another yellowfin.
We hit that rig hard and watched others around us hooking up but our luck had run out. In desperation late in the day we made a stop looking for some blackfin. We managed 4 at that stop and with the day getting late we headed in. We made one stop in state waters to see if we could pick up a few snappers. It took a few minutes before we located them but the action soon was hot and heavy.
Double hookups and even a tripple once but there was compatition
Sharks and mackrel were all over the place. The kings were hitting our sinkers and the sharks were attacking our snapper on the way in. We kept 2 that got chewed up a bit. Our last drop of the day gave us the bonus of the day. The fight was outstanding on fairly light tackle.
This cobia finished off our day.
With it already past 5:00 we had to head in. We were just out of one of the passes so it would be a short run. The topping on the box was a pretty sight.
Made for a long day but it looks like we pulled another one out of the hat. check out the snapper (top second from left) that had back reconstruction by a bull shark.
These 4 guys today were all from Weston, Ct. originaly, but are from all over the country now. They are all bass fishermen so today was an all new experience for them. At one time 2 of the 4 were out of action but one recovered. The guy that was sick all day at least landed a blackfin tuna and some snapper between chumming.
Life is Good!
Fishing is not a matter of life or death. It's more important than that.
CAPT HOOP -- OUR FREEDOM
05-19-2013, 08:37 PM
Venice 5-18
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