July 4th Carrabelle-Flat Seas

[Rogan]

Figured I’d fire off a report since I’ve been a bit lazy the last few trips down about posting. Being we were planning a pretty good feed Friday night with my folks we had to make a run to the Carrabelle IGA and were a bit late getting on the water but the wife and I headed out the C-belle river around 9:20 for a short day. We made a stop behind the island for a few pins and headed through the west past to a close number 6 miles out. Arrived at the spot and marked fish the first pass. I have to say the new Furuno 620 with the B-60 thru-hull is NICE!! Hardly any wind or water movement so we drifted the spot several times with only one 24” gag for our efforts. After about 30 mins I punched in another number out 9 miles and moved on. Same story…marked fish with only three bites of which one was the largest Jack Crevalle I’ve hooked to date . (Estimated 36+”). I thought sure I’d hooked a hog grouper but after several side to side runs away from the boat I finally brought the mighty beast boat side where he threw the hook before we could snap a picture. I made the decision to run to an area out from K-tower that I felt would be a sure thing. Flat seas and 30 MPH made the ride pretty quick.. A mile from the spot I stopped and decided to play with the Bonita that had been busting baitfish all the way out. About the time I pulled back on the throttle a Mack Daddy King Fish came up in front of the boat and must have went 30 feet into the air. Third cast with a 3” silver spoon and it was on. I handed the rod to Aim and the line begins to burn off the light weight spinning reel at warp speed. After several mins of back and forth she subdued the speed demon into submission and we snapped a quick picture before returning him to the briny depths. After a bit we decided we had enough blood on the deck so we motored on to our original spot to find fish marking and no bites. I’m scratching my head by now and decide to move another 700 yards to the “Sure Thing” . I decide to go with a dead bait (LY) this time and the first drift produces another 24” fish which goes into the chilly bin. I motor back around and throw the anchor. Again, the 620 makes me smile as I’m seeing stuff I’ve never seen before. I’m baiting up and I look over to see Aims face look very similar to a power lifter about to go down when the line goes “snap”… Now, my wife can be very competitive when it comes to fishing, especially when fishing with me, because she holds the reputation as always, and I do mean always as pulling the fattest slab of the day into the boat. At this point, its two-zero in my favor with not much time before we need to head in. I tell her “why not just try Whitey, and I’ll not re-rig, cause you always seem to do pretty well with that rod” After several shorts, missed fish I’m able to throw another keeper grouper and a 16” sea bass into the box. Several mins later “Whitey” bends over and its finally on for Aim as she lifts and reels down until a 29” fatty comes to the surface. She maintains her reputation! The next 20 mins produces only 1 bite and we decide to call it an early day and head in around 3:00. I figure the moon phase wasn’t our best friend but we had another fun day on the water. Most action came on LY’s in 56 ft.

[Flint River Pirate]

Great report, thanks for sharing!

[Fishman]

Very nice report

[CATCH 22]

Good "Quicky" for sure

[Tidedancer]

Great report Tony. Your 3rd photo looks like a Captain with fishing on his mind. Amy looks to be having a great time too. Thanks for sharing.

[Sea Fox]

Nice report, yall did beteer than us. We didnt land any grouper but did manage some peanut dolphin.We fished from 12 to 5 and not much going on where we were.