February 06 scoresheet

[Deep C]

Well the first day of Feb was a skiff run to the inside. It was nice enough for outside but the guys wanted an inside 2/3 day. We ran the C Gull down the lake to near the first bridge. Ladyfish cooperated on jigs with a coule pushing four pounds. We Shot back near the sailfish club and found only blue runners... Jacks had been blasting near the ships turning basin but I guess we were there at the wrong tide. There was not enough water behind Munyon island to work it properly so I tried Old Port Cove... Blues and jacks kept the boys busy for a while and then shut down. I took them to another spot not far from there. We nailed two dandy pompano and I was hoping to put a major crush on them ... Alas they were the only two we saw. I tried the rock piles on the way back to the marina and it was barren... Oh well they had dinner and some rod bending time...

[Deep C]

Day two of this month was supposed to be a day to work on lures and stuff... But the neck poke I took late last week needed medical attention. I got the express lane to surgery from that and had a wild ride under the doctors knife while Shamu, his nurse held me down. What ever happened to good looking nurses....

[Deep C]

When the phone rings at 4AM it can never be good news. This one certainly wasn't. My wifes favorite aunt , Doreen, was killed in a head on crash over in South Africa where she lived...That seemed to make the big bandage on my neck seem so insignificant as I tried to focus on the days trip.
My guys were early. Dave and Dave... I get a lot of Daves it seems... We looked at the south wind and discussed options as we were using my skiff. They surprised me by going with the inshore option and wanted to explore. The tide was better at my Munyon Island spot and we set up aon a good drift. Curly tail grubs were the hot ticket and the rods stayed bent for most of the morning. We had Bluefish , Jacks, ladyfish and even a couple Pompano to keep us busy for three long drifts.
Instead of a fourth drift across the flat I decided to try one along the mangroves near shore and we switched to shrimp. It was a good move as the variety list grew. We added a couple small throw back snook, a sheepshead, a few puffers, a seatrout, and even a baracuda for the list. I really wanted to stretch the half into a full day as I was having such a good time but the two Daves had all they wanted and at noon o'clock we slid back to the dock.
Came home to order some flowers to be sent to my mother in law and make sure my wife who's at work is doing ok. Now I think I'm gonna head back out and do some fishing for me... I need it...

[Deep C]

That afternoon fun fish never happened as the bad weather decided to slide in. It stayed with us yesterday and cost me a trip. Wanted to get them out today but they had plans. So bookingless I sat. I strolled down to the Deep C and about had a fit that the gang hadnt touched my shaft yet! They had a week!
I couldn't stand the sitting so out into the blue I went solo. I just dragged four nude hoos and let rip. A couple small mahi slid in to give me an excuse to get off the wheel early on. I added two lures and snuck off to the deep but the north west wind had it a shade sloppy out there. Back insdie 200' I had a cuda to rekindle the fire. A couple drag cookin size bonitos piled on to keep me busy... Another lone mahi added to the little flurry of activity. Just north of the buoy , my honey hole let a couple sails out and I bowed up both. Only one stayed stuck and it was some kind of frisky. I just dead boat fought it and got a clean release.
I dragged through the spot again and again but they didn't want to play. While I enjoyed my time alone in the vegitable patch I made up a variety of rigs that will be used at Bimini and just soaked in the nice cool crip day. With nothing left to prove and an already fair catch I set course to the W on the compass...

[Deep C]

Wow have I been lax about getting these reports up. Last week saw a single sail decked along with several small mahi. The winds only let us get out two days. Bonitos on the day savers were providing solid activity...
Friday came in with gorgeous conditions and I set out on a combo sword/ troll trip. Out of the gate we found oodles of sails free jumping but raising them was a different story all together... As weslid into the deep one finally did raise and we got two clean shots at it before it left the spread. Later a braggin size mahi piled on the wahoo bait I run way way back. It gave us quite the show. Unfortunately a bunch of head shaking about 15 yards out drove the weightd lure to the crimp and pulled the hook.
The eveneing came and we had swords on us from the first bait dropped but they were biting soft. Tenative little taps and pulls. One did pile on us and unloaded a quick 200 yards before pulling the hook.

Over the last few days we had a brutal cold snapand rough weather. I slid out for a couple hours yesterday to run the boat and managed 3 decent mahi and a couple bonitos. Today I was doing stuff in preparation for Bimini. The radio sounded like there was a fair bite outside the inlet of sails. Some kings have moved in but not the slobs yet. Give them a couple weeks. The next two weeks look pretty busy so I hope to get some posts cooking here...

[Deep C]

Had Reel Delight Curt back out today on the Deep C. Seems like Fidays are free jumper special days. Must have counted twenty this morn and just like last week they were in no mood to play. We hammered the edge and the shallows where we saw them but the coldest water and greenish I might add, had them pretty shut down. We slid off to 1000' and never had a sniff. The radio was quiet despite a pile of boats being out there...
Stray kings, one sail and one dolphin were all that graced the entire fleet of 20 or more. I found some lost trap floats with barnacle encrusted rope hanging and thought I would score. Six passes finally produced a teeny weeny 18" bacaruda that some how managed to wold down a horse and lure combo a long ways back. At least it was a bite. Considering how sucky things were today I had to consider my self fortunate.
Even the day savers were slow and I think we only had five little neeters for all that dragging. I could see fish in a weedy area but it was too messy to get a clean drag through. They still didn't want to play. I took a last pass and decided to point her at the beach. I crossed 100' near our sea bouy and a sail piled on my left rigger. Not your usual sail bite. He missed and I teased him back for a second and third shot. Finally blended mustad and mouth together and had a dandy little fight.
After letting that one go the whole area went on fire with thousands of flying fish being pushed. Sails, kings, bonito were all in on the act. They had no interest in hoos or plastic with all that flyer meat flyin around. Still it was a great site and a fun show to watch. Had to get in to get ready for tomorrows troll/ sword combo...

[Deep C]

Yesterdays report...

You know... When you live in a place like this you lose track of just how cool it can be. I did a morning charter in the skiff catching mahi, bonito and kings. Said bye bye to the passengers then for fun I tucked inside to see if I could get some spanish macks for marlin bait... Yeah I found them but then it dawned on me how cool it was to catch a host of other stuff in between the macks. Finally picked up my camera and started shooting...
Grunt

Porkfish

Trigger

Grouper

Spot

Lane Snapper

Oh yeah and the macks


Regular inshore trash can grand slam!

[Deep C]

Get your minds out of the gutter... This aint about Surfer girl... This is about the combo trip today. Inshore was cold green and unproductive so I made tracks for the deep. At 800' the water got gorgeous and the temp shot up five degrees. The boat I was guiding today is a nice little wellcraft wa but she has plastic telescoping riggers with clips from hell. This would prove to almost give me ulcers...
I was plodding along when the slob shoed up behind left rigger and piled on the DK/ Hoo combo I had laid out there the damn clip wouldn't let go! I said many bad words in a fluid stream as I manually got the mess cleared up and Bruce could fight the 300 class blue... I managed to snap one shot of him fighting then had to get back to some fancy maneuvering.

The leader was in hand at the half hour mark after a way acrobatic fight. Unfortunately the fish shot under the boat poppint the leader before I could give it akiss and get another pic.
The rest of the troll was pretty quiet except for one black tip shark that took a liking to my wahoo bait...
Night set upon us and it wasn't long before I had a sword soft playing me like the ones last week did. I played its game then finally it commited to eat and we bowed up. Not a biggie but the 50" slab of steaks gave a good accounting of itself and did a lot of boatside jumping before I introduced him to the deck.


He looked looked like he was getting cold so I gave him a nice warm shirt to wear...

[Deep C]

Boy did today suck! Came out in a very rare pea soup fog and opted for a half dozen livies as most of the inshore bite has been kings. We were set up for about 20 minutes when a slob king skyrocketedbut nailed a bonito and not of our baits. We banged the poop out of it in 95-150' back and forth and couldn't draw a bite. The fog lifted and I went on the troll. The water was flat out gorgeous. Clear , blue, and 78 degrees. Flyers all over but no fish. I heard the same from the whole fleet. I went on a desperation run to a wreck but it was covered with divers. I trolled. I drifted. I Jigged. Nothing! The divers left and I slid back to the wreck. A big black tip shark did a flip about ten feet off the bow and out went the livies we still had... They got nervous as i crossed the wreck. Finally a husky cuda piled on one. Thank God! It proved top be the only fish of the day. Tomorrow its definately a run to the deep woods for me...

[Deep C]

Damn! I hate running sucky reports back to back but that is all part of the honesty thing. I had Shammy Glen and his lovely wife out yesterday for a combo. I knew the waters inshore have been dead so not much time was wasted in there. Blue as could be but no current and no life...
I hit about 600 feet and found a very dirty scattered wee line and dirty water and once I passed it the gps indicated I had hit a brick wall with a monster current running. The water was a staggering 81 degrees and the current was pushing 5 knots! I pushed the thrpttles to the point of blowing up baits and finally had to pull the spread in and kill a half hour extra run time just so we could reach sword water.
We got near our area with about 45 minutes of trolling time left. As I was back in the corner rigging lightsticks to my squid rigs I looked up to see a small billfish grab the left flat. I responded and jigged it back up for a second bite. A second fish tapped the rigger but I was involved with dropping back. I went to come tight and nothing home. Two baits wrecked and nothing to show for it...
We set up for swording and the drift was brutally fast at 4.7 knots. I went to 32 ounces but the baits still wanted to ride high. Just around dark I saw a lightstic glow out iin the distance and thought I had one going but nothing home. In thinking about it its possible that the bait was just riding high enough to bring the glow stick to kinda visible range. The nite went biteless.
It was so bad that I suggested we not bother with a second day. They agreed and That was that.
I was doing my post trip engine inspection s and saw a pool of oil under neath my rebuild. I pulled the dipstic and she was near dry. Luckily there had been enought to maintain some oil pressure to the dock. It took three hours to find the souce. A line going to the cooler had let go. Now I had the cooler mounted to the hull where it was accessible but the mechanic had mounted it under the engine in what is probably the most inaccessible spot on the boat. It took three of us four hours to get it out and will have to finish the repair tomorrow.