Capt.ChrisLembo
01-15-2006, 08:17 AM
Brrrrrr. It is cold right now. 62 degrees.....and hats and gloves are all out of the closet. This past week we had some great fishing. Last Saturday a cold front came through but it blew on by and by Monday things were nice.
I hit the Gulf for the first time in a while and found tons of Gag Grouper. Most were small...in the 18-22 inch range. My buddy and I probably caught 50-75 of these smaller fish each before a nice one came along. We ended up with 2 nice Gags around 27", 6 big Mangrove Snapper, 8 big Lane Snapper and a small Blacktip Shark. There were lots of Blacktips and Spinners around all the rock piles and wrecks we hit. We spent most of the time jigging 3 oz Bucktail jigs tipped with a live Pinfish.
The rest of the week I spent on the Atlantic side and fishing was great. Two couples from Ireland were fishing for the first time. I hit a spot on the reef where they would have a shot at fish they could handle and they managed 2 Amberjacks (11# and 14#) 2 Mangrove Snappers, 4 Yellowtail Snappers, countless Cero Macks, a 15# Kingfish and a few Bonito. Luckily the King and Bonitos were at the tail end of the trip and ended up tiring them all out so they called it a day with a 1/2 hr still to go on the 1/2 day.
Another trip brought a 15# Black Grouper and a variety of other bottomfish...Yellowmouth Grouper, Yellowtail, Mangrove Snapper, Porgies, Red Hind and some undersized Red Snappers. The better fish seemed to be either shallower than 60 feet or deeper than 110 feet.
The rest of the week I worked the color change that had set up around 150 feet. No Mahi like last week but loads of Sailfish and Wahoo. I was rigged for sails and had a couple of cutoffs from Wahoo. Went 1 for 2 for Sails on one 1/2 day and 3 for 4 on another 1/2 day. It looks like things are shaping up for a sweet Sailfish season. Another capt. at Murray Marine lucked out and had a 48 pound Wahoo hit his Sailfish bait and it did not cut off. 30 pound Flourocarbon made it by all those teeth on a 25 minute fight.
That brings us up through Friday...Weather was perfect but yesterday a front came through and temps dropped to the mid 60's and the wind blasted from the NW at 30+ all day. It calmed down today to 15-20 NNW and should move back to the NE and drop to 5-10 tonight. Looks like we are shaping up for another nice week with 10-15 NE-E winds. This should be perfect to push more Sailfish our way.
I hit the Gulf for the first time in a while and found tons of Gag Grouper. Most were small...in the 18-22 inch range. My buddy and I probably caught 50-75 of these smaller fish each before a nice one came along. We ended up with 2 nice Gags around 27", 6 big Mangrove Snapper, 8 big Lane Snapper and a small Blacktip Shark. There were lots of Blacktips and Spinners around all the rock piles and wrecks we hit. We spent most of the time jigging 3 oz Bucktail jigs tipped with a live Pinfish.
The rest of the week I spent on the Atlantic side and fishing was great. Two couples from Ireland were fishing for the first time. I hit a spot on the reef where they would have a shot at fish they could handle and they managed 2 Amberjacks (11# and 14#) 2 Mangrove Snappers, 4 Yellowtail Snappers, countless Cero Macks, a 15# Kingfish and a few Bonito. Luckily the King and Bonitos were at the tail end of the trip and ended up tiring them all out so they called it a day with a 1/2 hr still to go on the 1/2 day.
Another trip brought a 15# Black Grouper and a variety of other bottomfish...Yellowmouth Grouper, Yellowtail, Mangrove Snapper, Porgies, Red Hind and some undersized Red Snappers. The better fish seemed to be either shallower than 60 feet or deeper than 110 feet.
The rest of the week I worked the color change that had set up around 150 feet. No Mahi like last week but loads of Sailfish and Wahoo. I was rigged for sails and had a couple of cutoffs from Wahoo. Went 1 for 2 for Sails on one 1/2 day and 3 for 4 on another 1/2 day. It looks like things are shaping up for a sweet Sailfish season. Another capt. at Murray Marine lucked out and had a 48 pound Wahoo hit his Sailfish bait and it did not cut off. 30 pound Flourocarbon made it by all those teeth on a 25 minute fight.
That brings us up through Friday...Weather was perfect but yesterday a front came through and temps dropped to the mid 60's and the wind blasted from the NW at 30+ all day. It calmed down today to 15-20 NNW and should move back to the NE and drop to 5-10 tonight. Looks like we are shaping up for another nice week with 10-15 NE-E winds. This should be perfect to push more Sailfish our way.