chumhead
11-12-2010, 11:53 PM
Capt Jim and I decided to head out Tuesday and have a shot a few flounder. After prowling the sandy spots, we had only caught a couple of short flounder and what seemed to be a hundred snake fish, so we decided to change things up. We headed to the pass and caught a few black sea bass that Jim kept, and I suggested we hit a spot where Trim-Tab and I had doubled up on Redfish and Grouper inside the pass. On Jims first drop in that spot he nailed a nice legal grouper
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e66/chumhead/PICT0212.jpg
Turns out that grouper suckered us into staying, but we didn't have any more luck there. We decided to head back into the bay to fish the docks of a private yacht club not far from the marina, but as we got close I looked over and saw a bouy that I fished a few times and caught several small grouper, both Gag and Red, but only caught one keeper fish there, so we were more or less looking to just have a little fun. The current was ripping so I told Jim to give it a try and I would just hold us in place....again, he catches a grouper on the first drop....this one was 1 inch short. He drops again, and hooks up with another....then another, then another. By this time I'm coming around to set the anchor and join in, lol....
We get anchored up where we can drop back and fish the bouy in the current, and get into a flurry of action...both gags and reds, even having a few double hookups. Then, the grouper started getting bigger.....bear in mind we were flounder fishing, lol....so all we had were our trout rods and my biggest rig was a 30 series reel spooled up with 15 lb test Fins braid. I had one fish take me to the cleaners and had to re-rig. Then.......BOOM! My poor trout rod was looking more like a pretzel.....
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e66/chumhead/Grouper-1.jpg
This was my only legal grouper of the day, but Capt Jim filled out the rest of our limit.....and we were about 200 yards from the boat ramp!
Final tally: 4 grouper, 3 black sea bass
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e66/chumhead/PICT0214.jpg
Friday Nov 12th....
Capt Jim wanted to take his boat out today, so we headed out to do the same thing. We started off at the pass again, and I caught my first legal Scamp Grouper....about 18 inches (16" min. here) and Jim caught a couple of nice over-slot redfish (sorry, all the pics are in his camera tonight).
Then, we get a call from Rich, one of the organizers for the local MADD event we had back in July. He just dropped his boat in the water and wanted to head offshore for a red snapper or two since it was Friday and the weekend season was now open. Capt Jim dropped his boat off at the marina and we jumped in Rich's boat and headed out to our regular 5 mile spot. Not planning on heading offshore, all I had was small stuff and decided to give up and run the boat for some power-drifts after loosing a couple of rigs on my small rod. Capt Jim hooks up and boats 3 keeper red snapper and Rich was getting a bit upset having just had something clean his clock as well. Well, persistance pays off as Rich re-rigs and fires down a jig leaving the baits alone. All the sudden, I thought he hung the bottom again, but this time it had the snapper bounce.....
after a good fight I looked over the side really expecting to see a small amberjack and found myself running for the landing net.....
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e66/chumhead/100_5942.jpg
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e66/chumhead/100_5943.jpg
A 12+ pound red snapper!
By this time its almost completely dark and we make the run back in to get Capt Jims boat and head back to our marina.
Not bad for a couple of "flounder trips", lol.... Oh yea, Jim did catch one flounder today.....but we'll have to wait for him to add those pics later....
chumhead
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e66/chumhead/PICT0212.jpg
Turns out that grouper suckered us into staying, but we didn't have any more luck there. We decided to head back into the bay to fish the docks of a private yacht club not far from the marina, but as we got close I looked over and saw a bouy that I fished a few times and caught several small grouper, both Gag and Red, but only caught one keeper fish there, so we were more or less looking to just have a little fun. The current was ripping so I told Jim to give it a try and I would just hold us in place....again, he catches a grouper on the first drop....this one was 1 inch short. He drops again, and hooks up with another....then another, then another. By this time I'm coming around to set the anchor and join in, lol....
We get anchored up where we can drop back and fish the bouy in the current, and get into a flurry of action...both gags and reds, even having a few double hookups. Then, the grouper started getting bigger.....bear in mind we were flounder fishing, lol....so all we had were our trout rods and my biggest rig was a 30 series reel spooled up with 15 lb test Fins braid. I had one fish take me to the cleaners and had to re-rig. Then.......BOOM! My poor trout rod was looking more like a pretzel.....
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e66/chumhead/Grouper-1.jpg
This was my only legal grouper of the day, but Capt Jim filled out the rest of our limit.....and we were about 200 yards from the boat ramp!
Final tally: 4 grouper, 3 black sea bass
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e66/chumhead/PICT0214.jpg
Friday Nov 12th....
Capt Jim wanted to take his boat out today, so we headed out to do the same thing. We started off at the pass again, and I caught my first legal Scamp Grouper....about 18 inches (16" min. here) and Jim caught a couple of nice over-slot redfish (sorry, all the pics are in his camera tonight).
Then, we get a call from Rich, one of the organizers for the local MADD event we had back in July. He just dropped his boat in the water and wanted to head offshore for a red snapper or two since it was Friday and the weekend season was now open. Capt Jim dropped his boat off at the marina and we jumped in Rich's boat and headed out to our regular 5 mile spot. Not planning on heading offshore, all I had was small stuff and decided to give up and run the boat for some power-drifts after loosing a couple of rigs on my small rod. Capt Jim hooks up and boats 3 keeper red snapper and Rich was getting a bit upset having just had something clean his clock as well. Well, persistance pays off as Rich re-rigs and fires down a jig leaving the baits alone. All the sudden, I thought he hung the bottom again, but this time it had the snapper bounce.....
after a good fight I looked over the side really expecting to see a small amberjack and found myself running for the landing net.....
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e66/chumhead/100_5942.jpg
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e66/chumhead/100_5943.jpg
A 12+ pound red snapper!
By this time its almost completely dark and we make the run back in to get Capt Jims boat and head back to our marina.
Not bad for a couple of "flounder trips", lol.... Oh yea, Jim did catch one flounder today.....but we'll have to wait for him to add those pics later....
chumhead