Well it started ok. My buddy Curt who owns the Albemarle I run in OC some years is borrowing my skiff for the next couple weeks. I was there to show him some inside spots and play fish a bit.
We stopped at the mouth of the inlet where there have been some permit recently . We bounced jigs tipped with live shrimp for a few drifts before Curt bowed up. It was a good fish but not acting like a permit. A few minutes later we were rewarded with a big slob sheepshead about as big as I've seen around here.
More drifts produced nothing so it was off to the rock pile. Right away we were into variety. Snappers, grunts, along with exootic parrotfishes were the first to show. We kept beating at it and soon the first of many macks visited. Some blue runners joined in as well. Even some ballyhoo got within range and I bagged a dozen horses.
We were just enjoying our selves minding our own business when I see a FWC boat with some new big heavy set gal at the helm. She comes over and decides to do a spot inspection. As is the case with many of them they are not very accurate when it comes to knowing what gear different classes of boats are required to carry. For me it doesn't matter as I carry twice the coast guard requirements but I was sure to inform her of her mistakes along the way.
She starts radioing in all kinds of stuff and looks at one of my fishing licenses as being expired. "Yes mam it is but this license here covers me and that one there covers my friend." She didn't want to let it go and we both turned up the heat...Until I got to that point of no return from going Deep...
"Young lady I see not much gets past you, especially donuts . But I've been a pro working these waters for over twenty years and I know the law. That one license covers me and the other covers my friend." She started to turn red...
Then the radio came back to life. All my info. Boat is good, in fact he has several boats. Licenses are good. Products license all good. Upstanding pro citizen. Yes the two other licenses he's carrying cover him and his passenger. She just handed me my stuff back and went away after killing a good hour of tide....
Once on land I went to get the expired license current and ran into the same idiot lady I have dealt with for a few years. Over and over she tried to bring up wrong classes of licenses or duplicate my good ones... I couldn't take it any more... "Ok sweetie... Look at these lazer blues... You remember them as being the one who broght down the tv camera crew the last time you screwed up this bad. Remember talking to the governor ( I actually had to pull a string there three years ago). We're going to take a deep breath. Read carefully the license in you hand and copy it exactly as it reads to bring up the right screen..."
She got pissed but it worked and two hundred two dollars later my new license was in hand... Walking out the courthouse should have been simple. They have metal detectors for people comming in. I walked past them going out. Some upstart kid sherrif tried to play tough guy and make me walk through the detector again...
I turned to his superior "General, I suggest backing this kid out of my face. I'm on the way out not going in..." The little pit bull was backed off and finally I got to go home... Now I can rig some of those macks and some squids for tomorrows combo trip...
That was my day... How was yours?
I talk time to time about people wanting to stay inside to avoid rough water and just get in on some action. One of my stape spots is the rock piles near our inlet...
I fished a couple days last week with my regular client Bruce and his son Johnny... I got a couple shots from him.
This first one is a pork fish...
This one was a bing angelfish we stumbled onto... The highlight of the young fellows trip...
I had the urge... My buddies had the urge so we jumped on the Bertam and decided to go looking for a blue. A short chop, hot, full moon... Why not...
We arrived at 600' and popped out a spread of big stuff. I even broke out the fine china for todays game (Tiagras)...
The spread consisted of mashers, macks, dk/hoo combos (like the teardrops) a bird a wahoo shotgun using a mamba2-hoo combo and a squasher hoo combo. Ideal spread for the conditions. We covered ground but little life or even weeds showing... It was gonna be a matter of stepping on one.
About forty minutes into it somewhere around 800' I saw a billfish tail swinging in behind the left masher but the fish vanished. I ran pitch baits in around tehre but the fish never came back up... Two more passes produced nothing. Theres something soothing though about big baits just floppin behind on a warm spring morn.
As we continued down the line I saw a zig zagging boil comming up on the left dk/hoo combo and down it came... There was some bend in the rod but not enough pressure to pull line off even against free spool with the clicker.
I got to the stick and could feel a fish back there keeping pace with us and even could see the line angling down... I came tight and felt like I set up on a stone. No run no gain. Just a stand off... Bowed up but on what?
I guess I'll never know. less than a minute into the stale mate my leader let go... Brought it back and even more confused than I was... It was scuffed for a few inches like a billfish bite but then it was cut clean at the tip????
If I had to guess judging from where we were I might say Mako???? But the scuff confuses me...
We plowed for a couple more hours with no life then saw something floating. A life jacket was just bobbing around (nobody in it) . Got my rigger bait too close and we bowed up on the strap hanging off it...
My buddy Scotty2 got into place and set the hook... I positioned myself in the corner and forty or fifty seconds later of greuling "fight" had the leader double wrapped and preserver on the deck!
To our north I could see a roll cloud steaming at us... About that time the starboard engine started surging and coughing. The wind went north and we packed it in early... We didn't score. I don't care at least we were marlin fishing as hard as we could. Worth it!
The game was supposed to be kings. I shut her down in 90' and the water was already crystal clear gorgeous. Too gorgeous. I could see bottom structure all the way to about 110 feet and that meant the kings would see that wire leader just as easily. We did start with a wahoo bite then a king did find the one mono rigged gog that I had to offer.
The phone kept ringing on my peoples phones. Something about snow what ever that is. My guys didn't seem to care. They were focused on staying cool in the 80 degree weather and dealing with some of these...
We picked the well down to just a few. Curt and son both really wanted kings so I continued our quest. With the last three baits we had out I got into about 59 feet of water a quarter mile out the inlet...
The back bait got aggitated and then I saw purple. First one then three more on the flat line. Then the whole damn place was a sea of slashing bills and sails popping up and down.
The long fish bowed up as others fought over the other baits. Shear pandemonium. I think I could actually hear the screams from the gogs "OH shit!!!! Sails!!!!!" One bait swam around the hooked fish's line and hung in mid air with a pack of sails all sticking their heads up before one finally nailed it. Somewhere in the foam the third bait had been gobbled. As lines came tight fish were running into them. Jumping fish all over and we couldn't tell which was on what. What I could see though was that the hooked ones had formed a world class braided knot... :
One by one all three sticks stood up and the ocean became blue again...
I looked in the well and the cupboard was bare. It was time to go but tomorrow we'll be back at it...
Got the call that Curt and his son wouldn't make it today. Promises made to Curts grandson involved a baseball game and too early of a start time for them to get back there and get some fishing in...
Me, being broke (and Cheap ) wanted to see if the sails were stacking in there like yesterday but didn't want to barf up a hundred bucks for a dozen live baits. So. I grabbed some retread hoos that I needed to get rid of anyway and went at it.
I heard the boys yapping about some dolphin out on the edge so I started there in about 110'
It was an all naked hoo spread with a few circles and a few "J" hooks. I found a couple dolphin but I also found that I still suck at getting them bowed up with circles... Though I have the billfish game down ok with them the dolphin is still a bit quick for me and my lame game. Three straight whiffs had me switch back to good ol 3407 J hooks.
Figures, the green death stopped biting.
I took the Deep back inside to the shallows and started whacking it hard. Flyers were going so I dropped a small lure to match the hatch in the spread . No go.... I was having a ball enjoying the bluebird day and comfortable temps when a lone ratty sail started batting the rigger around. I was on my game and the fish about as suicidal as they get. Bowed up and was disappointed to see it was even smaller than I thought. Came to the boat just green as hell unable to work any drag off the tld 25 I had him pinned to.
He was pronged in the top of the bill so at least I got my hook back. I was ready to put the spread back to work when my phone rang. Missus Deep was on her way to pick up Mini early from school as she has been battling the same kind of sinus crud that has been bugging me for a couple weeks. So home I went. Just made her some chicken sooop and gonna now take care of some stuff for the islands..
Had member Chris K and his lovely escort Kelly aboard today.... I knew I was gonna have a tough one after I'm suddenly missing around a half volt or more from my system (alt? Battery?). Damn I hate looking over my shoulder at srtuff when I'm trying to fish. Add to that being 700lbs heavy with a load of chub stuff aboard and the potential for back siphoning through the bilge pump. I was a bucket of nerves.
It was still cooking at 15 when we cleared the inlet but that was better than the last month of 20-30kts... Water was blue and clean and off we went.
The day started way slow. In fact it wasnt till about 11:00 whene we got our first fish. Just a dolphin but hey it was a fish.
I could see fish working flyers all over the place and they did not even want to look at the spread. Frigates, terns, gannets all bombing for hours. Water exploding, flyers all over by the acre but we couldn't draw a bite. Away from the commotion we drilled a few neeters for action. I slid deep and the was on my way back in when we had a billfish working over a ccouple small lures I was running. Then Bingo... We bowed him up. Light tackle and off to the races. Turned out to be a sail and considering the fleet was skunked, I'll take it...
We plodded on adding some more neeters to the collection and some more dolphin. We get a final crack at it then are Island bound!
Here the lovely Kelly shows the dolphin a little love...
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. But I've been a pro working these waters for over twenty years and I know the law. That one license covers me and the other covers my friend." She started to turn red...
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) wanted to see if the sails were stacking in there like yesterday but didn't want to barf up a hundred bucks for a dozen live baits. So. I grabbed some retread hoos that I needed to get rid of anyway and went at it. 