~~Snakeman~~
01-25-2008, 07:00 PM
What a morning on the Mad Son! I met Vince at the dock at half past six. Big John was supposed to bring three friends, but Jason told us that at least one was out with health problems, & the weather may keep the others away as well. Vince was a little leery of the predicted 6 foot seas also. I was afraid that Vince & I would be the only ones willing to go out, but at the last minute, John & one of his friends, Ron, decided they'd go. Mate Mike wasn't there yet. He called about a quarter til & apologized for oversleeping. He showed up about ten after. He was razzed quite a bit over that, but it was all in good fun.:rolleyes: Okay...the seas were supposed to be around five feet early, increasing to eight later in the morning. When we got out there, they were all of five, with some sixes & eights thrown in to wake us up.:eek: As it turned out, though, the seas began to decrease around 9:30 & were down to a very comfortable level by the time we got back in.
We went straight out & began fishing in short order, intending to put out a live bait on the kite for sailfish. The first thing I did was put out a whole sardine on my 30# outfit (Rogue rod & Shimano Tekota reel) with 50# mono leader, and a half-ounce barrel sinker above the hooks, targeting kingfish & dolphin. As soon as I got that out & up in the high holder forward, I moved to the stern to begin bottom fishing. My bait hadn't reached bottom when I noticed a nice dolphin jumping about 80 feet from the boat. He was jumping trying to dislodge the hooks from my 30# rig. I ran forward & grabbed the rod, & we had a seven pound bull in the box less than five minutes after the fishing began.
Jason & Mike deployed the kite with a live goggle-eye on a circle hook. We caught a few nice sized blue runners...too big for live bait, but just right for the smoker & next week's fish dip. About twenty or thirty minutes after the first dolphin, my 30 pound rig hooked up on another dolphin, this one a little smaller, but it had friends with it. Everybody managed to catch one out of the school before they left. We got one more later on the live goggle-eye.
Ron caught a nice king mackerel, & I was surprised there weren't more out there. Big John battled an amberjack that was an inch shy of the required 28" fork length. Vince got a nice porgy, I managed the only legal mutton snapper of the day, & there were a couple of nice yellowtails caught.
Late in the trip, Vince caught a kingfish, & I figured I'd target those for a while. I had earlier put my thirty pound rig away, but I broke it out & fished with it exclusively, jigging the whole sardine while letting it out. After less than five minutes of that, I had a nice hit, locked the spool, set the hook & watched in amazement as a six foot sailfish did a bit of a tail walk for us. Jason had everyone bring their lines in so he could back down on the fish. The intent was to get it to the boat quickly so that it could live to tail walk another day, after giving us the chance to take its picture. That process got me soaked, but I loved every minute of it! :D I did manage to get the fish close enough to the boat for the mate to touch the leader (legal release), but we were not able to bill the fish & get pictures before the hooks pulled out.
So, everyone caught mahi mahi dinner, I brought home a couple of snappers as well, & some fish to smoke.
Thanks to John & Ron for deciding to go, & to the crew for a really nice trip.
Next week I'll be joined by Jimmy Lee & John B. & his lovely wife Janis. ~~Greg~~
We went straight out & began fishing in short order, intending to put out a live bait on the kite for sailfish. The first thing I did was put out a whole sardine on my 30# outfit (Rogue rod & Shimano Tekota reel) with 50# mono leader, and a half-ounce barrel sinker above the hooks, targeting kingfish & dolphin. As soon as I got that out & up in the high holder forward, I moved to the stern to begin bottom fishing. My bait hadn't reached bottom when I noticed a nice dolphin jumping about 80 feet from the boat. He was jumping trying to dislodge the hooks from my 30# rig. I ran forward & grabbed the rod, & we had a seven pound bull in the box less than five minutes after the fishing began.
Jason & Mike deployed the kite with a live goggle-eye on a circle hook. We caught a few nice sized blue runners...too big for live bait, but just right for the smoker & next week's fish dip. About twenty or thirty minutes after the first dolphin, my 30 pound rig hooked up on another dolphin, this one a little smaller, but it had friends with it. Everybody managed to catch one out of the school before they left. We got one more later on the live goggle-eye.
Ron caught a nice king mackerel, & I was surprised there weren't more out there. Big John battled an amberjack that was an inch shy of the required 28" fork length. Vince got a nice porgy, I managed the only legal mutton snapper of the day, & there were a couple of nice yellowtails caught.
Late in the trip, Vince caught a kingfish, & I figured I'd target those for a while. I had earlier put my thirty pound rig away, but I broke it out & fished with it exclusively, jigging the whole sardine while letting it out. After less than five minutes of that, I had a nice hit, locked the spool, set the hook & watched in amazement as a six foot sailfish did a bit of a tail walk for us. Jason had everyone bring their lines in so he could back down on the fish. The intent was to get it to the boat quickly so that it could live to tail walk another day, after giving us the chance to take its picture. That process got me soaked, but I loved every minute of it! :D I did manage to get the fish close enough to the boat for the mate to touch the leader (legal release), but we were not able to bill the fish & get pictures before the hooks pulled out.
So, everyone caught mahi mahi dinner, I brought home a couple of snappers as well, & some fish to smoke.
Thanks to John & Ron for deciding to go, & to the crew for a really nice trip.
Next week I'll be joined by Jimmy Lee & John B. & his lovely wife Janis. ~~Greg~~