Mexico Beach 5-3

[konrad]

NOAA was calling for 1-2 but it was more like 4 with the occasional 5 so we stayed within 6 mile of the coast'. started trolling around the car bodies. with 5 min got the first hit using stretch 25. the fish spooled us on the first run and got off. ran out close to 300 yards of line. My guess was either a smoker king or a lost Wahoo. We continued to troll for the next few hours catching Bonita and small kings. we averaged 1 fish every 10 to 15 min. ended the day with some bottom fish. couldn't get past the snapper to catch a grouper though.

While we were out there we noticed 2, 70' commercial boats pulling nets in the buoy line. Maybe I am missing something but I thought they had to be allot farther off shore to do that. They weren't shrimp boats either. Any ideas?

[BayGator]

You probably saw the boats from Raffield and Woods fisheries out there on the buoy line. They catch bait cigar minnows and other bait fish out there. Good to hear the kings are starting to show up, too bad one smoked you though, get'em next time!!!

[leesburgga]

good news to hear. i am trying to get down there not this weekend, but the next and give the kings a try. is there a bait boat that stays on the water in that area and if so, what channel do they run?

"we averaged 1 fish every 10 to 15 min". were any of these keeper fish?

[konrad]

We didn't use live bait for the Kings because we couldn’t find any. Stopped by 8 buoy's and found only one hard tail. We ended up just trolling stretch 25 plugs for the kings. They were all on the small side, 12-18lbs but fun to catch. We kept one for dinner and let the rest go.

Had a hard time finding bait for grouper too. At the end of Cape Sand Blast there is a tidal pool that is normally loaded with finger mullet and pins. the park had it roped off due to bird nesting so we couldn't through our cast net for them. we ended up catching some lady fish and cut them up for bait. Like I said all we got was a bunch of snapper.

[leesburgga]

if you don't mind; not asking for numbers -- but how far did you go for the bottom fishing?

[konrad]

5 to 6 miles. All the numbers are public and easy to find. Just search Mexico Beach artificial reefs.