Alligator Point 8/16/03

[james.osborne]

Well I'm a little late in reporting in on our fishing trip.... but better late than never.

Took off from our dock at alligator point around 7am on Saturday headed out for the deep. Stopped off at Dog Island reef with some sabiki's where we quickly loaded the live well with pinfish.

As it was rather calm out and one of the few deep points I know of, we decided to make the run to Bryson. We were the first boat to hit the wreck and anchored down. As always Bryson lit the sounder up. Hard to believe that fish aren't always on Bryson given the structure. However, after one short AJ, several more boats joined us, and a good bit of time with no hits it was time to go.

We moved over to Yamaha. When we were within a few miles of the wreck we saw a few 'dots' sitting on top of it. As we moved in closer both boats were in process of pulling anchor to leave. Kind of a mixed blessing that way as you've been given room to anchor on the wreck but nobody seems to think it's worth sitting on. We dropped down and actually were anchored just slightly off the wreck. In the next 30 or so minutes we caught a few short red grouper, one keeper gag, a king on the flat line (about 40 some odd inches long), a few short and keeper AJ.

Then we got our first and subsequently last Cobia on the line. Lost him at the boat as one of my buddies wasn't quiet in touch with the fact that trying to boat a 'green' Cobia is a losing proposition. As we'd been reeling in a few fish, another boat had shown up on the wreck and anchored a short distance away. As we looked over the other boat began bringing them in as our fishing seemed to turn off. The other boat caught several AJ's and then began to bring in what looked like 6-8 Cobia off of the bottom using live bait. Always funny how you can be a short distance away on the same wreck using the same bait as another guy and not be pulling them in. But it was the other guys day to catch the Cobia.

The following day led us to a shorter run off of Dg. Isl. to some spots in 50-55' where we caught several short gags and reds.

Overall was a fun trip.

Does seem based on talking to others, that the Grouper are a little spotty right now. Seems like the big boys are sitting in the deeper water 80+ ? However, to throw a curve ball a buddy of mine went out off of Dog Isl. in 30-40 ft and caught 8 keeper gags in a few hours.