Start by sharing that this year has found me doing the least fishing I've done (at least in salt) since moving to TLH in 2002. Really been missing my beloved Ecky as well as time spent with the first fishing bud I made here, board member Sharkman who tirelessly helped me learn the area between Ecky and Rock Island via kayak back in the day. Having noted a pretty strong solunar forecast for this past weekend I put Sharkman and coworker Ontilttttt on notice that winds permitting I wanted to head southeast out of Ecky and to run offshore past the federal water line hunting new grouper spots, kingfish, cobia, and prayerfully to verify the lack of any red tide impact. Actually wanted to go Friday and Saturday but settled on Sunday with the prediction of a bit less wind.
Before getting to the fishing, will just say that the Econfina truly is a balm for my soul. Nothing makes me much more happier than when I get these views with the rising sun.
Bait update next -- TONS! First spot we stopped at offshore, we had glass minnows stack under the boat within a minute or two only to have spanish mackeral slamming them inches from our stern. Funny thing about the spanish is that they must have been in a "match the hatch" mood, as we threw countless silver spoon casts perfectly in the midst of feeding schools throughout the day without any hitting / even chasing our spoons. Didn't worry with them too much since they weren't our intended target. Back to bait, for the FIRST TIME THIS YEAR had no problem catching bait, at least offshore that is. Blue runners, menhaden, grunts, and tomtates all hit with reckless abandon when we found any productive bottom at all.Now for the solunar portion of the report. Per my Time2Fish app bite was predicted to be best from 10:33am until 1:08pm. Prediction was dead on. Strong bite lasted until within minutes of the 1:00pm hour. Wish I could say we tore the grouper up, but can't though did lose several monster bites to creatures from the deep (unseen) that COULD have been BIG grouper. Scouting nonetheless allowed us to mark some spots for further investigation.
Instead of catching grouper, my species of choice, cobia, seemed to find a way to find Marine's Dream despite our scouting for new spots. Unfortunately no slot fish, but we did some good cobia tagging work which I truly enjoy. Despite the few trips this year, have tagged a good many fish as the mix has favored shorts this year versus larger keepers.Bite was enjoyably steady at our drops with pink mouth grunts giving us lots of fun fights on our bait rigs. Kept one or two huge ones for the supper table. Highlight of the day was one of Ontilttttt's catches. Before heading out he told me that he really hoped I would put him on a kingfish. Some of you may recall, this request coming from the same guy that asked me to put him on cobia his first day of work, with him landing a 35 pounder the next day. Well, turns out Marine's Dream is Ontilttttt's personal Disney Cruise "where dreams come true."
Ontilttttt floated a stinger rig at one of the first spots we stopped to explore and within just a couple of minutes his reel was singing like a dentist's drill! To say he was happy is a huge understatement.
Can't lie, had such a good time getting back on the water have wished I could be back on it each of the past two days.
