Frustrated doesn't begin to describe how I feel. Fast water is such a nice guy and I wanted so badly to pop some sails for him... I pulled out all the stops. We started with three days of shitty rainy nasty weather. Day one was too bad to even fish properly and we were pushed back to the dock before we got started yet we had 0-2. The next day was calm and we were 0-5. Yesterday was bumpy and rainy and atleast another 0-4 or 5... Although we didn't pull tha long nose out it was a lot of action and fun.
Today was sunny and warm but the wind was up and giving us anither pretty bumpy ride all day. 3-5' tight with a cross swell was the rule. The water was purple again. Too clear. We beat a much broader pattern than usual today. I worked out past 600' and into 50' farther north and soth and not a sniff from a sail. I saw a slob yellowfin in the 200# class blow up on some flyers. Great site but no hits for us. The blackfins were back and we boxed a couple. Despite reports of quite a few dolphin we had only two. We also had two wahoo bites that just missed the hooks. A couple dozen neeters kept the boredom off. We played it hard but the sails eluded us today...
Still a great time and great company.
Last night I watched the trees swaying the west wind and could feel the thremometer plumet into the basement. I called all my local clients looking for a taker but they were all too busy brown nosing inlaws to jump. When I see north west this time of year it meas sails and I would be damned if I was gonna sit on a dock twiddling my thumbs of even doing important chores.
I got up and it was 48 degrees of shear sailfish weather. I had no sponsors so that meant there would be no cash flow for live bait. I could take the skiff and try to catch some but what if the seas came up or the bait didn't play. Instead I jumped in the Deep with a cooler full of hoos and decided that was gonna be my plan.
I ran to the north out of Jupiter but arrived to find things kind of slow. The fish would materialize some where but I couldn't tell exactly where... The current was almost non existant and I decided to do a long down wind pull. I had a wild hair up my butt and popped out a "tournament" dead spread compleat with stripteaser dredges and long leaders. That in it self is asking for trouble from cuda or wahoo.
About ten oclock I saw a rod tip getting pulled at and low and behold a sail was pinching one of my circle rigged naked hoos. I dropped and missed. The fish came back and I dropped way back. Came tight and it was game on. This one was not very frisky at all. One greyhound jump and a lot of stubborn pulling but nothing spectacular. I was surprised when I grabbed the leader that the circle easily pulled... Desppite several more passes through the area nothing more wanted to raise.
At 11:15 a second sail started sniffing around my flat line the disappeared. Moments later I saw him in wrecking my dredge ... I brought the flat up tight and he ate. This one decided to dart several directions in short order and soon I had basically a "braid" for a tangle. I sorted through the spider web of mono and had to hand line the last few feet to the snap swivel were I cut the leader behind it.
By one oclock I was back in front of my usual inlet. I guess I was scratching my head or sipping a soda cause I never saw the next one comming. The rigger went down and bowed up by itself... This fish ran forward of me and the fight was effectively just drive up to him and grab the leader. I did just that and he hit the after burners... I was doing my standard unsafe bare hand wrap and know I will be feeling that one for a while!
Fish number four raised on the flat again and a long drop allowed me to sting him good. I was feeling guilty about having all this fun myself so I decided to share. I called Gradywhite273 Tim but got his voice mail. So I serenaded the recorder with the sounds of a screaming drag....
I dead boat fought that one and in just a few minutes had leader. Not wanting any more line burns I just cut the leader. Tim called back and "thanked" me for "sharing"...
My radio started cackling with the boats back up north starting to get into a hot and heavy bite. I turned back that way but the bite died off. As i plodded around I had a dolphin pile on my bird bait and after several misses with the circle I finally got it to plant.
As it turns out, that was the last nibble for the day. I pointed her home for a leisurely ride back in my tower...
Was sponsored this morning thanks to a buddy giving me an over flow trip he was facing when 8 people showed up to fish on his four man boat . Again the gogs graced the livewell. Better yet he even had them waiting for me when I picked up the passengers down at the dump ... Late start. Just enough chill to make it interesting. Since it was a half day I decided to play close to home again . Current was light and a bit of east to the wind... I didn't fight the cuurent but I did slide deeper than I have been fishing. At 210' feet a pack of dolphin train wrecked us. We got just one of the three bit it was a start.
A few minutes later we had a wahoo skyrocket a rigger bait. The line never even came tight before the leader was snipped. I neared some numbers that I had done well at in past years and bingo the sails were there! We had a tripple up and eating just as I reached the range markers I wanted to hit. All three found steel but we jumped one off before getting the other two.
I was hoping I was on to something and ran back to where we bowed up. A single dolphin found its way to the box and as I reloaded a fresh gog here was another tripple.
Same story though two stayed stuck and the other went away... Maybe I should have been using circles...
I was down to two baits and deployed them back where the original bite took place. My people had a plane to catch and time dwindled... Alas no takers on the last bait and nothing on the dead I ran for just a few minutes.
We raced back home. I don't like pushing the engines that hard, especially on old oil but I had stretched it. Back at the dock the two teams share notes, I got a nice "gratuity" and it was back to my marina for an oilchange.
That was pretty much uneventful. The usual do every thing you can to stay clean then get an oil bath or two at the very end... At least my engines are running honey instead of lumpy black oatmeal...
These shots were from yesterday... I don't want any crap about how bad they suck. Remember I was alone...
Empty pit and a fish comming on the left rigger...
Bowed up... My camera is haunted. It chose to use flash on a bright sunny day...
Leader in hand but no polarized filter sucks
Making of a braid....
My dredges came back missing a few "fish" off the strips...
LinkBack URL
About LinkBacks
Reply With Quote
... I brought the flat up tight and he ate. This one decided to dart several directions in short order and soon I had basically a "braid" for a tangle. I sorted through the spider web of mono and had to hand line the last few feet to the snap swivel were I cut the leader behind it.
