Got the blue water fix in this past weekend. Waves were perfect thurs, good fri, "sporty" saturday and reasonable sunday. Here is the story....
Thursday, we got a late start do to countless delays getting out of Tiki and on the road for Port A... none so more frustrating than a one hour wait for the ferry with NO WIND!!! Finally got on the island and everything situated. Boat in the water around 3:30. We were in blue water by 4:30, a little short of double yellow. Immediately started catching fish.... the braid marauder was the hot bait, catching 3 kings in the first hour. Then had a nice dolphin nail a ballyhoo and put on a good show. Trolled out to double yellow and nothing there. No bait, no fish, no knock downs. Headed back in shallower and had another king and some bonita on the marauder and also ballyhoo with various skirt colors. Weeds were scattered, but weather was beautiful, pulled back into the harbor at 8:50... spirits were high.....
Friday morning we awoke to a light breeze. We broke the jetties at 6:10. My vision of a 1.5 hour run to Baker no longer seemed such a reality. Made double-yellow at 7:15 and the seas were starting to moderate and space a little better. At 8:05 we put out the spread at South Baker... lots of scattered weeds from just inside of S. Baker out on to the rocks. Nothing doing there. Headed out to the "new" jack-up rig between N. Baker rigs and S. Baker rigs. Had heard reports of BKFT there from Thursday afternoon. First pass, the marauder goes off... baracuda. Nada on the ensuing passes. Head back in to S. Baker. Weeds get thick again, but not really organized to troll. We missed a decent dolphin on a ballyhoo amongst the scattered grass. Get tired of cleaning lines and head back out to deeper water and the S. Baker rigs. Bonita hit everything at 111. Frustrated of having ballyhoo torn up by bonita and pulling weeds of everything at the rocks, we abandon the Baker plan a little after 10. Start trolling deeper out to about 60-70 fathoms and down to Aransas Bank. Clean water and smooth sailing. Find a few areas of weeds that are trying to form but no lines to troll. We do pick up a couple of gaffer dolphin amongst the scattered weeds, but there is much more line clearing than fish cathcing and we slug on. Nothing at Aransas Bank, so head over towards Southern. About a mile from Southern a big wahoo goes ballistic on a chugger... comes 20 feet out of the water and ZZZZZ... nothing.... so we keep going. 60 seconds later ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.... got this one, not as big, but we have a 20 lb hoo on ice. Its 3 pm and things are looking up. Discover that the first hoo bit through the heavy mono leader on the chugger. So we set the hoo trolling spread and pull all of the billfish baits off the menu. Cover the area with no more knockdowns. Cover Southern with nothing, then over to a shrimper with nothing and weeds get super thick again. Head back to southern and then start working our way into 35 fathoms and pull the baits in. Stop at a shrimper in 90 feet on the way in and immediately hook a king on a ballyhoo. It is 6, so we pick em up and head for the house. New plan for Saturday... blow off Baker.
Saturday we wake up and the wind is up to typical Port A speed for our trips. Clear the jetties a hair after 6 and can barely make 20mph. We are getting wet and beat up. Decide that hospital will be the destination. 15 miles out and it is getting worse. We are down to about 17 mph. 20 miles we decide to start trolling since we aren't going anywhere fast. Out with the dolphin spread. Immediately have a double... bonita. Keep heading out. Get to hospital around 10 or so. Nothing doing. Various scattered weeds. Head to Southern where we are hopeful of something solid. Between Hospital and Southern we get on a moderately formed weedline. Still has ragged edges, but is trollable, at least compared to everything else we had seen. We pick up 3 "gaffer" dolphin. Nothing big. All fish seemed to be singles. Getting close to Southern and we get a good run on a ballyhoo and then it comes straight for the boat...hmmm... we see it and we have a solid hoo. We get excited, this one will look real good on the Outboard Tourney leaderboard. Mr. Hoo makes another good run and we get him back up to the boat and nothing... about 10 feet down, the hooks pulled. Quite disappointing. He would have eaten the 'hoo that won the touney (14lbs.). Back out with the spread and on to Southern. Reports of BKFT inside of Southern so we are still optimistic. Nothing at Southern, so start moving in. About 215 feet of water, double hook up... we have BKFT on the mind, but bonita on the hooks. Work in to about 200 feet and pick up. Head in to the shrimp fleet and redeploy the spread. Pick up a couple of small kings in the vicinity of the boats. Pull into the harbor about 6:30. Worn out.
Sunday, we decide we can't take the beating again, so we opt to wade in the morning. We slide over the side of the boat at 7 somewhere down the St. Joes Island shoreline. Were about half exposed to a cross wind. We immediately wander right into the middle of a trout feeding frenzy. Fish ranged from 10 to 20 inches and for every "keeper" we had 2 dinks. Strung 20 or so throughout the moring, letting the ones that were hooked lightly go, keeping the ones that looked to be in trouble. My buddy was attacked by a purpoise and **** near dragged out to sea. He had a couple of trout picked clean off his stringer, but he pulled back harder and retained control of the stringer and rest of the trout. I had another purpoise grab a trout I was fighting about 15 feet in front of me and just about burn up the Chronach before he let go and I dragged in a dead trout that I had to throw back to the purpoise. But the purpoised moved on rather quickly and the bite remained hot til almost 2. Then we decided to head offshore, as the wind was down a bit in the afternoon. Broke the jetties around 3 or so and headed for the shrimpers. Started trolling at the buoys and immediately hooked a king. Then a BIG mackeral. Got out to the boats at the 6 mile rigs and tangled with a few more kings and a bonita or two. Headed back in and had the boat on the trailer at 7.
All in all a great weekend on the water. Fishing could have been a bit better in the blue water, but it could have been worse. Will try and remember pictures tomorrow. Outboard tourney was fun, even though we didn't weigh anything in.
Thursday, we got a late start do to countless delays getting out of Tiki and on the road for Port A... none so more frustrating than a one hour wait for the ferry with NO WIND!!! Finally got on the island and everything situated. Boat in the water around 3:30. We were in blue water by 4:30, a little short of double yellow. Immediately started catching fish.... the braid marauder was the hot bait, catching 3 kings in the first hour. Then had a nice dolphin nail a ballyhoo and put on a good show. Trolled out to double yellow and nothing there. No bait, no fish, no knock downs. Headed back in shallower and had another king and some bonita on the marauder and also ballyhoo with various skirt colors. Weeds were scattered, but weather was beautiful, pulled back into the harbor at 8:50... spirits were high.....
Friday morning we awoke to a light breeze. We broke the jetties at 6:10. My vision of a 1.5 hour run to Baker no longer seemed such a reality. Made double-yellow at 7:15 and the seas were starting to moderate and space a little better. At 8:05 we put out the spread at South Baker... lots of scattered weeds from just inside of S. Baker out on to the rocks. Nothing doing there. Headed out to the "new" jack-up rig between N. Baker rigs and S. Baker rigs. Had heard reports of BKFT there from Thursday afternoon. First pass, the marauder goes off... baracuda. Nada on the ensuing passes. Head back in to S. Baker. Weeds get thick again, but not really organized to troll. We missed a decent dolphin on a ballyhoo amongst the scattered grass. Get tired of cleaning lines and head back out to deeper water and the S. Baker rigs. Bonita hit everything at 111. Frustrated of having ballyhoo torn up by bonita and pulling weeds of everything at the rocks, we abandon the Baker plan a little after 10. Start trolling deeper out to about 60-70 fathoms and down to Aransas Bank. Clean water and smooth sailing. Find a few areas of weeds that are trying to form but no lines to troll. We do pick up a couple of gaffer dolphin amongst the scattered weeds, but there is much more line clearing than fish cathcing and we slug on. Nothing at Aransas Bank, so head over towards Southern. About a mile from Southern a big wahoo goes ballistic on a chugger... comes 20 feet out of the water and ZZZZZ... nothing.... so we keep going. 60 seconds later ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.... got this one, not as big, but we have a 20 lb hoo on ice. Its 3 pm and things are looking up. Discover that the first hoo bit through the heavy mono leader on the chugger. So we set the hoo trolling spread and pull all of the billfish baits off the menu. Cover the area with no more knockdowns. Cover Southern with nothing, then over to a shrimper with nothing and weeds get super thick again. Head back to southern and then start working our way into 35 fathoms and pull the baits in. Stop at a shrimper in 90 feet on the way in and immediately hook a king on a ballyhoo. It is 6, so we pick em up and head for the house. New plan for Saturday... blow off Baker.
Saturday we wake up and the wind is up to typical Port A speed for our trips. Clear the jetties a hair after 6 and can barely make 20mph. We are getting wet and beat up. Decide that hospital will be the destination. 15 miles out and it is getting worse. We are down to about 17 mph. 20 miles we decide to start trolling since we aren't going anywhere fast. Out with the dolphin spread. Immediately have a double... bonita. Keep heading out. Get to hospital around 10 or so. Nothing doing. Various scattered weeds. Head to Southern where we are hopeful of something solid. Between Hospital and Southern we get on a moderately formed weedline. Still has ragged edges, but is trollable, at least compared to everything else we had seen. We pick up 3 "gaffer" dolphin. Nothing big. All fish seemed to be singles. Getting close to Southern and we get a good run on a ballyhoo and then it comes straight for the boat...hmmm... we see it and we have a solid hoo. We get excited, this one will look real good on the Outboard Tourney leaderboard. Mr. Hoo makes another good run and we get him back up to the boat and nothing... about 10 feet down, the hooks pulled. Quite disappointing. He would have eaten the 'hoo that won the touney (14lbs.). Back out with the spread and on to Southern. Reports of BKFT inside of Southern so we are still optimistic. Nothing at Southern, so start moving in. About 215 feet of water, double hook up... we have BKFT on the mind, but bonita on the hooks. Work in to about 200 feet and pick up. Head in to the shrimp fleet and redeploy the spread. Pick up a couple of small kings in the vicinity of the boats. Pull into the harbor about 6:30. Worn out.
Sunday, we decide we can't take the beating again, so we opt to wade in the morning. We slide over the side of the boat at 7 somewhere down the St. Joes Island shoreline. Were about half exposed to a cross wind. We immediately wander right into the middle of a trout feeding frenzy. Fish ranged from 10 to 20 inches and for every "keeper" we had 2 dinks. Strung 20 or so throughout the moring, letting the ones that were hooked lightly go, keeping the ones that looked to be in trouble. My buddy was attacked by a purpoise and **** near dragged out to sea. He had a couple of trout picked clean off his stringer, but he pulled back harder and retained control of the stringer and rest of the trout. I had another purpoise grab a trout I was fighting about 15 feet in front of me and just about burn up the Chronach before he let go and I dragged in a dead trout that I had to throw back to the purpoise. But the purpoised moved on rather quickly and the bite remained hot til almost 2. Then we decided to head offshore, as the wind was down a bit in the afternoon. Broke the jetties around 3 or so and headed for the shrimpers. Started trolling at the buoys and immediately hooked a king. Then a BIG mackeral. Got out to the boats at the 6 mile rigs and tangled with a few more kings and a bonita or two. Headed back in and had the boat on the trailer at 7.
All in all a great weekend on the water. Fishing could have been a bit better in the blue water, but it could have been worse. Will try and remember pictures tomorrow. Outboard tourney was fun, even though we didn't weigh anything in.
