Beaufort Fishing Report

[Sea Draggin]

But not much CATCHING*

Dean, Mitch, Tony, Ty and myself set out for a day of jigging on a much less-than-favorable forcast. The problem was that none of us had been in a few weeks and I wasn't going to be able to go again until Venice in two weeks, so we took off on a 3-6' forecast.

The plan was to shoot straight for Peewee and work our way back inshore as the forecast was to deteriorate as the day went on. When we first got there it wasn't too bad with 3-4' waves, but by the time we left it was 4-6' with an 8' roller about every minute or so.

The biggest issue was the current flowing northeast against a northeast wind. We were actually drifting straight into the sea. If I tried to backtroll it would cause the boat to do some crazy stuff. We just had to deal with the drift straight into the swell.

I was able to pull one jack off the bottom in 400' of water with a 400g Potroast Katana. It was a tussle for the first 300'. I vented that one before sending him on his way.

Heartbreak #1. After giving up on the deep, we put out the high speed. We had three solid wahoo bites and pulled off all three of them at the boat. The first of the heartbreaks.

We moved back inshore and jigged some. The jacks had lockjaw bad. I was marking them all over and we dropped everything we had at them. At times we would even see them follow the jigs back to the boat without biting.

Heartbreak #2. Someone said look at the size of that ray. I looked over and all I saw was the 60lb cobia with it. Mitch was closest to the popping rod and pitched out the subsurface lure. The cobia inhaled the 7" lure. I'm talking gone. Then stayed right there with the ray, not even knowing it was hooked. Finally it realized something was wrong, swam out about 40 feet and spit that lure like a bad mint. We saw several others, all with rays, but couldn't get another shot in the sloppy seas.

Heartbreak #3. Later Mitch pulled off a big jack cementing his accomplishment of the days Pull-off Grand Slam with wahoos, cobia and jacks.

At one point I started 4 consecutive drifts from the same point where I was marking good. On the first two we went SE. The third took us SW and 4th drift took us NE. It was the worst conditions I have ever tried to work.

Thank goodness we were on the cat for the ride home is all I have to say. Otherwise I would still be recovering.

Breaking the inlet in the AM, still under the protection of the shoals. That changed big time when we cleared the knuckle bouy.



Deep water Jack



I would have been happy if we had just landed half of what we hooked, but at least we got to go and enjoyed some good company.

[paul708]

Jim.
nice report.
glad to see you guys got out.
that is a good looking fish.

that cat does ride sweet.
mitch and dean are great to fish with.

[Jesse Lockowitz]

I wasn't going to be able to go again until Venice in two weeks,. .

kill em up in venice.



Jesse

[Sea Draggin]

I got a new 155 Yeti for the trip

My last trip I could do no wrong. This trip nothing went right, so I'm going to look at it as getting it out of the way, in prep for Venice.

[Tenacious]

kill em up in venice.



Jesse

I hear that!!!! Nice report Jimbo

[Jesse Lockowitz]

I got a new 155 Yeti for the trip

My last trip I could do no wrong. This trip nothing went right, so I'm going to look at it as getting it out of the way, in prep for Venice.

multi day big boat in venice jim? or priv outboard ?


i was lookin into doin somethin like that next year for some big yellows. topwaters ofc.




Jesse

[Sea Draggin]

The trip was organized through Buffington. He has all the details.

[Surfacegrinder]

Good report Jim. Hate the cobia got away though.

[Ponce]

Nice report Jim. Sounds like you guys did manage to come up with some decent action in less than ideal conditions.

[Sea Draggin]

in less than ideal conditions.

If less than ideal is having waves break over the side of the boat when I turned beam to while trying to high speed troll, then yes, they were less than ideal.