Third Trips The Charm

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big bend gyrene
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Third Trips The Charm

Post by big bend gyrene »

Guessing this may be the latest "1st report of the year" I've posted since joining the forum back in 2005.

Actually have taken 3 salt trips out this year and won't take long to detail the first two.

On trip #1 I went alone mid-April. Main reason for the trip was to make sure the boat would run ok before taking company out on trips. Good thing I made the trip too as unfortunately the boat acted up. Ran, but ran rough -- thankfully a good tune up by Quinn at Parkway got things back in good running order with quick turn-around. As for fishing during the initial trip, the spots I hit for bait did NOT produce. Only managed to get two pins over about an hour targeting them. Made it to one of my cobia spots with them and they lasted all of about 10 minutes with one short grouper reeled in and the other bait stolen without a solid hook-up.

On trip #2 I had Ontiltttttt aboard. Definitely felt the pressure to find a cobia as going into the trip we had a history of 5 full years making trips together with at least a single cobia brought aboard every time out. Trip FRUSTRATINGLY found us struggling to catch bait just as I'd experienced during my first trip. Spent FAR too much time pulling in just a few pins off good looking grass so we moved out a bit deeper and strangely found we had a MUCH easier time catching pins in deeper areas with much more sparse grass mixed in with sand and rocky bottom.

The good news is we found one single cobe willing to play and were able to keep the streak alive. The bad news is it was short as were a half dozen or so others we sighted during the day. Tagged the one we caught and released it. Also caught a couple of short grouper and junk fish as we waited with hopes for a bigger cobe to appear.
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Before ending the trip I talked Ontiltttttt into rope-wrestling a goliath that had chased up almost every fish hooked throughout the day. Glad I talked him into it as it turned out to be the highlight of the day / ended the trip on a fun note.
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The bad luck in searching for a keeper cobe blessedly ended this past Friday while I was doing my best to put my wife's nephew, nieces, and a friend of theirs (all down visiting from out of state) on fish. It was a true joy having them aboard, as despite a slow start they seemed happy just to be out on the water the entire time, and were quite patient while we awaited a "monster bite" after catching a mackerel and letting them each experience a remora latching on to them (never fails to entertain folks who haven't fished saltwater before!).
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Despite finding a ton of bait around, we never saw any evidence of the bait being harassed and found ourselves with less than a hour remaining to fish when we FINALLY got our BIG bite, and what a bite it turned out to be.

We actually failed to hook the cobia the first go round... it ran with one of our baits and when we put tension on the line it dropped it. Pulling the bait up I saw it hadn't been cut by a shark or crushed by a grouper, and I suspected a cobia had taken it and might take it again. Before I could even drop the bait all the way back to the bottom the line ripped off on a STRONG run again. Round one with the cobia found us bringing it close to the boat only to have it do a deep dive and circle THREE other lines we still had down. With a mass of knots in the middle of the active line I thought for sure we'd lose the nice cobia to a break off but as a team everyone worked to keep the knotted lines pushed far enough down on the main line until we were able to reel the cobia just close enough to gaff it. Tale of the tape -- 44" cobia weighing in somewhere between 30 to 35 pounds (bringing it green we couldn't keep it still enough for the scale to completely settle). Made for a happy day being able to see my wife's family off with a cooler filled with tasty fish!
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Though I'm thankful to have finally landed a keeper, still waiting on a red-hot bite day and pray the weather will cooperate in the weeks ahead and we can avoid any red-tide issues. Should also note that even on this last trip we again strangely had better luck with the pins off thicker grass (spots I've LONG been able to count on for bait) and instead in sandier areas with sparse grass and some rock. Also can share we swam around scouting for scallops and sad to share didn't spot even a single one. On more positive note we saw no shortage of grass and on the heels of last year's heavy rains / dark waters I was happy to see the grass thriving again.
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Hit-n-Miss
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Re: Third Trips The Charm

Post by Hit-n-Miss »

Outstanding report!! Sounds like good times.


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geofish
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Re: Third Trips The Charm

Post by geofish »

Nice cobia, cool trip!
Thanks for the report
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woopty
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Re: Third Trips The Charm

Post by woopty »

Just awesome BBG!

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Re: Third Trips The Charm

Post by Salty Gator »

That’s great
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silverking
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Re: Third Trips The Charm

Post by silverking »

You're a good host, BBG. Nice trip and thanks for the report.
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