Tuesday morning: Rounding out the three man crew aboard Rob’s 23 foot Contender, the Early Bird, was an outstanding young man, Scott who conveniently just happened to have a day off from classes at Flagler College……..( I overheard the word “skipping” - whatever that means….). I’m a true believer in that life experiences aren’t always learned from a book so it was an understandable decision on his part. At 6:30 a.m. we left Rob’s dock and headed due east.
Seas were less than 2 feet with a light breeze out of the west. Water temperature offshore the beach was 53.1 ° F. Close to the Weather Buoy the water temperature reached 70.4° F with a fair bit of weed around although it was scattered. According to the buoy, winds were at 12 knots, with a 2 foot sea, and a 3 second period. We started here, putting lines out, and high speeding east.
Lines out on a pretty calm ocean
Ten minutes later the first hit of the morning came on the shotgun with a red/white cedar plug. After a short fight and a quick bleeding a nice blackfin hit the box.
Me with a blackie
Back on the troll and thirty minutes later in 138 feet the drag starts to sing on the starboard flat line. Scott gets the rod and works a fish that pulled some drag but not quite smoking it.
Scott up
The first wahoo of the day is about to come aboard.
Coming to the gaff
Rob at the gaff makes a nice shot and it’s coming over the gunnel.
On the deck it’s the usual bloodbath.
Wahoo on the deck
Scott with the first wahoo of the morning
Lines back out and the bite slows down. At some point we came across a mola mola. Not the best shot of it but it was Scott’s first ocean sunfish he’s seen. Just icing to an already outstanding day.
Pretty nice conditions
Mola mola
For us the bite has quieted down and the after talking with a few friends further offshore we decide that our bite wasn’t too bad and we’d stick around the 130-140 ft area we’ve been working. It’s nice to have friends offshore and trade information (Thanks Earl & Tosho it was good talking with you).
Continuing to high speed from 8 to 11.5 mph Rob notices on the depthfinder a distinct hard bottom hit with fish suspended 60 feet above the 140 foot hardbottom. On the surface there was a turtle too.
I wasn’t quick enough to get a photo of the suspended fish 60 ft above the bottom but this was around the spot
Thirty seconds later the starboard flat line rod goes off but this time the drag is screaming. It’s Rob’s turn on a rod and he gets on it as we start clearing a few lines. With a couple of rods out of the way we start to quarter the fish and Rob starts taking back line. After a couple of minutes we see color and it’s a beautiful sight; a nice wahoo and it’s lite up. At this point I put the camera down to gaff it and Scott takes the helm (and camera).
Rob on the rod
Wahoo on deck
Rob with a nice wahoo
A wahoo classic
After some high fives and a few photos we went back on the troll. It’s only 10 a.m. and we have the beginnings of a good fish box.
An hour later while trolling in 130-140 feet we start to see a few flying fish and a little bit further we see live bait getting slashed on the surface. Looking back I see a good sized wahoo skyrocket 6-10 feet above the water close to the shotgun lure but no hookup. Water temperature was at 70.1 ° F here. We high speeded a bit more in the area and then switched to meat, trolling plastics with ballyhoo. After an hour of that with no hits we pulled baits and put the high speed lures back out working back inshore to where the weed line was. After a spell and after discussing other options (quite bummed about the closure of red snapper, beeliners, & grouper) we decide to head to a number which was marking fish and try for AJs.
Stopping at a spot in 120 feet we’re marking a lot of bait and we set up for a drift. The guys are kind to me (??) and let me go first. On the first drop it’s a no brainer as a strong fish hits the diamond jig and starts shaking its head. Since I like smoked amberjack the first AJ in the boat hits the box.
AJ time
A nice solid AJ
Scott’s up next but comes up with a small AJ. Meanwhile, Rob has dropped down and he’s on a nice fish. At “color” you can see it’s not an AJ and but a good grouper. After a few photos this gag was vented, released, and swam off strongly despite being caught in 120 feet.
Rob hooked up
Gag
On deck-probably between 15 - 17 lbs
Diamond jig
Rob with a solid gag
Scott’s dropped again and it’s instant AJ.
Another reef donkey
For a while we took turns dropping down diamond jigs and playing with the AJs.
More AJs
After my third AJ I had a hard hit and put some pressure on the fish. With the fish surging I put on a little too much heat and the Shimano Trevela rod exploded in my hands. (Dave, I’m sure you’ll read this - Rob is gonna bring the broken rod by your shop). That’s the second one I’ve broken with braid. This Trevela rod was rated from 50-80 lbs and it had 60 lb braid. My left hand sure stung for a while plus I got a couple of cuts.
Broken rod
With that we cleaned up the boat and got ready for the ride in. By this time the seas were pretty flat and the ride in was an easy one. Driving back it was like a lake. Ten miles from the inlet in 65 feet, the guys saw some large things on the surface and we swung over to take a look at it. It was a gam of three Right Whales. Keeping in mind the 500 yard restriction I had to zoom in to get these photos and the photos become quite pixilated.
Hard to miss this from a distance
Very cool!
Right whales
Gam of whales
With that we headed back to the dock enjoying the ride on the flat Atlantic.
Scott holding the largest hoo of the day - a tad over 30 lbs.
Dock shot
THAT was an awesome day on the water!
Catch em up!
Hoo Yah!!
Brian
Great report and a super trip. Definately deserves a 
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