Friday, June 20, 2008
Doug on Fish
On the way back from lunch, we had a dolphin double header with Doug on the cow and me on the bull. We brought both to the boat, but I lost the bull when the line got tangled on one of the rods on the gunwale! I almost dove in after the thing when I saw him swim away with my blue/white Iland Lure and the wire leader trailing from his mouth.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Triple Play
We then caught what I thought was a small snook at first, but just ended up being a Mojarra.
Last but not least, we pulled up this little ray.
Monday, December 03, 2007
Sheepshead Sightings
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Early Winter Jack and Snapper
We haven't been able to do nearly as much fishing with the kids as I've liked to, but last Saturday at about 3 PM we got a chance to dip the line for a while. We were using live shrimp and managed to pull in a couple of species we've seen before. The first was another Mahogany snapper, brought in by Stephanie. This one was probably the largest one we've seen back here, about 12 inches long. Unfortunately, we couldn't get a picture of him.
Right after we threw him back, I reset Danny's rod and dropped the shrimp right in front of the dock. As soon as it hit the water, I saw a small jack come up and hit it. I handed the rod to Danny and he pulled this little guy up:This was also Isabella's first fishing experience. She didn't catch anything this time, but she wasn't complaining either.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Dolphin, Cuda and Tuna Oh My
I got another chance to go out with Ernesto and was delighted to see a repeat performance of the infamous fish dance. Ernesto's version sure seems to bring out the fish! Our day started at about 6 AM with a run to Dunkin Donuts. We were back and heading out towards the inlet by about 7ish. We tried getting some livies, but had no luck as usual. Our plan was actually to anchor out in about 70-ish feet and try to get some yellow tail, but we quickly got bored. We decided to head out and see if we could find any structure offshore. We didn't have any ballyhoo, but we decided to let out a couple of lines with Rattle Jets and another with a cedar plug. Right after letting out the second line, we got our first hookup. Ernesto brought the first Barracuda in shortly thereafter. Right as we were resetting, we get another hook-up. This one was much smaller... much smaller. It ended up being a black fin tuna that was about a foot long and it tried to swallow a 6" cedar plug. Even though it was the first tuna landed on the boat, I decided the tuna gods would look kindly on a release of the baby and a try at finding mom or dad.
We circled around for a while, but with no more success we headed further out. It was a beautiful fish, can't wait to catch a bigger one. At about 7 miles, we got our next almost simultaneous knock-downs with two dolphin on the lines. We had the usual fire drill walking around each other, but Ernesto's fish spit the hook. I brought in the other one pictured above. The only other knock-down was a smaller cuda that was released.
When it was time to clean the fish, I tried a new method. Pulling the skin off before removing the fillet is much better than trying to slice it off after the fillet is off of the carcass. I also took the fillets off of the barracuda, but didn't end up using them for fear of ciguatera toxin.Thursday, June 07, 2007
Looking for New Light Action Combo
- Daiwa 3000: $64.99
- Shimano Sahara 4000: $59.99
- Okuma Epixor EF45: $69.99 (MSRP)
This one probably won't make the cut. The cost seems high and I don't think Sports Authority caries it. They list the Okuma Epixor reels as freshwater and the only ones they have are much less than MSRP. I doubt that is the same one.
Sunday, June 03, 2007
First Dolphin of the Summer
Alex suggested that I get out before the baby comes and the seas cooperated with me. I set out alone at about 10:30 AM after rigging up some ballyhoo on wire with an assortment of Island lures. I was at the inlet at around 11:00 and saw several balls of baby pilchards. I tried casting the net for some, but since I was alone it wasn't a pretty sight. I headed straight out and put the lines in the water. Since I only have three rods, I didn't bother with the outriggers, but I should have - seems that's what made the difference today. In about 750ft. of water, I finally pulled out the starboard rigger and hooked the Penn's line through it. A couple of minutes later, while reeling in another line to check the bait, the rigger pops and the Penn starts singing! Fish On! A couple of minutes later this cow is boat side and I manage the solo gaff shot.
Fresh dolphin sandwiches for lunch! I'm going to have to get a new cooler.
I'm going to have to do this more often, even if just to practice how to filet these things. Since I don't do this often, I end up hacking them up and not getting as much meat as I can from them.
Monday, May 21, 2007
First (Monster) Snook
This beast is a little bit bigger than the other species we've pulled out of the canal and the good news is that he was swimming with another one at least as big as he was! After the shot, this guy went back in the water and swam off happily.
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Man Time
The mojarras started nibbling again, but this little snapper came up and snatched the shrimp out of their little mouths.
Right as we threw the snapper back in, I noticed that the other rod had gone tight on something else. Danny reeled that one in and we were surprised to see a moon fish on the hook. This was one of two that we caught back to back and a new species for us.
Danny took this picture himself using his new camera, that's why it's a little blurry. After we released the second moon fish, I threw another shrimp on the hook and put it right off of the dock. A little while later, I felt a tug and pulled up a little to see a small ray at the end of the line. Unfortunately, the hook wasn't set, so I couldn't pull him up for Danny to see.
The bigger news is that there are two very large snook patroling our canal. One has a lenght of line dragging behind it and the other doesn't. They're both in the 15+ lbs. range and carry their entourage on their backs. They have at least one small remora or other type of parasite fish stuck onto them. They swim by once every 10-15 minutes, right along the sea wall. They're both beautiful fish and you can tell that they're not dumb enough to go for any hooked bait. We'll report back if we're ever successful at hooking any of these guys.
Monday, March 26, 2007
Lady Fish
They didn't end up landing anything, but after they got bored I kept at it for a while and brought in this little lady fish.