St. Marks 06-27-2003

Post by **Tom Keels** » June 28th, 2003, 10:57 am

Headed down to the fort about 3:30 to do a shakedown cruise of my friend Wil's new (1985 model) 22' Chris Craft with 2002 150 HPDI. Wil, Jon and myself headed down the river and out past the Safe Water Bouy. We like the seas that greeted us and the way the boat was riding so we kept on going.

Made it out to 24 to try to sabiki some bait. As I was getting bait, I noticed an odd white shape about 15 feet down moving slowly. I told Jon to grab the cobia rod with the jig on it and give it a toss. He does but thinks we are just messing with him and doesn't see the 30 pound cobia come up. inhale the jig, run 10 feet and spit it out. I'm standing there dumfounded. After giving Jon his well deserved ribbing, we moved off to a close number and started to fish. After catching several shorts and 1 23" gag, we used up our dozen live baits, so we decided to go back to the marker and get some more.

Got about 10 pins, cigars and threadfins and I asked the guys if they wanted to catch an AJ. Jon is from the keys and has never caught one. Wil and I laughed and said this should be fun. I punched up the number for the OAR/Wakulla DZ3 reef and off we went.

As we went the seas were bulding to 2-3's, but the chris craft rode like a dream. We got close to the number and I took the controls. The guys baited up and I hovered over one of the reefs. Down the baits went and both hooked up. Jon was screaming like a little girl and I was laughing my a$$ off. Both fish were shorts and Jon couldn't believe we couldn't keep something that pulled so hard.

We pulled back up to the reef and I hooked up on a jig and John hooked up again. We ended up catching 5, all shorts, but Jon is now hooked. Our next trip will be to the Yamaha.

We left for the hill about 7:15 and pulled up to the fort at 8:30 pm. Trip log showed 70 miles. At the gas pump we put in 20 gallons of gas. Man, you have gotta love an HPDI!

Post by **Cranfield** » June 28th, 2003, 11:52 am

Sounds like a good "work-out".

Pity about the cobia, that would have been something special.
Its strange how so many people have cobia throwing the hooks, or lure.
Blunt hooks , or some strange technique they have ?

HPDI ? High Performance Diesel Injection ?

Post by **Tom Keels** » June 28th, 2003, 2:17 pm

HPDI - High Pressure Direct Injection.

EddieJoe · Post by **EddieJoe** » June 28th, 2003, 4:54 pm

Tom:

I was out there at almost the exact same time. I trolled around the 24 barge for just a few minutes, as I was field testing my motor since it was repaired. Not any bait on the barge.

I did run about a mile north and there were gulls and bait getting hammered. I tossed out a nylure on light spinning, and hooked a huge bonita. It almost spooled me twice, but I eventually landed it and released it. It was about 15 lbs, I guessed, and a big catch on my rod.

Went in as the seas built. Ready now for a serious offshore trip since the motor is tip top. Glad to hear you guys had fun.

EJ

Post by **Tom Keels** » June 28th, 2003, 6:18 pm

Ej,

On the way back in we came up on a school of those huge bonita and I threw a diamond jig in them, and almost lost my rod. I think I may have foul hooked one because I fought the fish for 2 minutes and never gained a bit of line before the hook pulled. I wish I would have known you were out there, we would have hailed.