chumhead
10-29-2011, 03:20 PM
Well, this has not been a very good year for the economy, and the same holds true for my work schedule.....it seems that salaried people are the ones that are always told to make up for any cutbacks in payroll and hours, lol.
Despite lots of work, the end of the beach season and small gap before the start of the Holiday and Christmas Seasons allowed me to get the boat out for a little fishing with Capt Jim and Walters annual October visit from Mississippi.
Walter and I fished the bay due to fairly high winds the entire time he was here. We managed to catch lots of nice Spanish Mackerel and a few of our targeted species, flounder. Cold fronts made the flounder fishing difficult, so we mixed in a few flat lined baits looking for Spanish, trout or the occasional redfish. You can see how far we are from shore here, fishing a transition from grass to sandy bottom, about 5 miles from the Panama City Pass when Walter got a screamin' hookup....
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e66/chumhead/PICT0459.jpg
He was fishing with his trout rod, an Okuma Epixor 30 spooled with not nearly enough line, lol.... before we know it, he is literally at the knot at the end of the spool while I attempted to pull anchor and give chase. Luckily (for us) the fish was rather content to just hang out at the end of the line and we were able to motor closer for a fight. About 15 minutes later we finally see what hit his bait....
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e66/chumhead/PICT0468.jpg
A 38" King Mackerel decided to prowl the bay for what he thought would be an easy meal. Had a brain fart and decided to try to net him since we didn't think about having a gaff on the boat fishing for flounder. Luckily enough, he made a big enough hole in the net that we could pass the rod and reel through it and continue the fight, lol.... I then remembered I had a very small hand gaff in my boat box (the one he is using the hold the fish in the picture).....it was quite interesting gaffing a 38 inch King with a 3" T-gaff, lol....but got him the first shot.
We continued to fish and found another one of our targets in the bay, but he was about 1/8" short....
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e66/chumhead/PICT0471.jpg
Also found a little slot redfish...
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e66/chumhead/PICT0473.jpg
I didn't do a very good job of taking pictures, but we managed to squeek out a couple of good fishing days.
Capt Jim and I decided to head out and fish a few bouys in the bay after we hit some with Walter and got into some good fishing, including the nearly extinct Red Snapper within the protected waters of the bay. This time the weather was much calmer.....we got into a bunch of black seabass, silver trout, spanish mackeral, a couple more red snapper, small sharks and these guys.....
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e66/chumhead/PICT0475.jpg
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e66/chumhead/PICT0476.jpg
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e66/chumhead/PICT0480.jpg
We each also had about a half dozen breakoffs we suspected to be grouper or redfish breaking us off on the bouy chains.
Hopefully, it won't be so long before I can post up another fishing report....going to get a couple lotto tickets today and invest in my retirement fund, lol.....
chumhead
Despite lots of work, the end of the beach season and small gap before the start of the Holiday and Christmas Seasons allowed me to get the boat out for a little fishing with Capt Jim and Walters annual October visit from Mississippi.
Walter and I fished the bay due to fairly high winds the entire time he was here. We managed to catch lots of nice Spanish Mackerel and a few of our targeted species, flounder. Cold fronts made the flounder fishing difficult, so we mixed in a few flat lined baits looking for Spanish, trout or the occasional redfish. You can see how far we are from shore here, fishing a transition from grass to sandy bottom, about 5 miles from the Panama City Pass when Walter got a screamin' hookup....
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e66/chumhead/PICT0459.jpg
He was fishing with his trout rod, an Okuma Epixor 30 spooled with not nearly enough line, lol.... before we know it, he is literally at the knot at the end of the spool while I attempted to pull anchor and give chase. Luckily (for us) the fish was rather content to just hang out at the end of the line and we were able to motor closer for a fight. About 15 minutes later we finally see what hit his bait....
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e66/chumhead/PICT0468.jpg
A 38" King Mackerel decided to prowl the bay for what he thought would be an easy meal. Had a brain fart and decided to try to net him since we didn't think about having a gaff on the boat fishing for flounder. Luckily enough, he made a big enough hole in the net that we could pass the rod and reel through it and continue the fight, lol.... I then remembered I had a very small hand gaff in my boat box (the one he is using the hold the fish in the picture).....it was quite interesting gaffing a 38 inch King with a 3" T-gaff, lol....but got him the first shot.
We continued to fish and found another one of our targets in the bay, but he was about 1/8" short....
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e66/chumhead/PICT0471.jpg
Also found a little slot redfish...
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e66/chumhead/PICT0473.jpg
I didn't do a very good job of taking pictures, but we managed to squeek out a couple of good fishing days.
Capt Jim and I decided to head out and fish a few bouys in the bay after we hit some with Walter and got into some good fishing, including the nearly extinct Red Snapper within the protected waters of the bay. This time the weather was much calmer.....we got into a bunch of black seabass, silver trout, spanish mackeral, a couple more red snapper, small sharks and these guys.....
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e66/chumhead/PICT0475.jpg
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e66/chumhead/PICT0476.jpg
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e66/chumhead/PICT0480.jpg
We each also had about a half dozen breakoffs we suspected to be grouper or redfish breaking us off on the bouy chains.
Hopefully, it won't be so long before I can post up another fishing report....going to get a couple lotto tickets today and invest in my retirement fund, lol.....
chumhead