Offshore Mexico Beach

[bbb]

Went offshore a few days over the 4th. Mainly 1-2’s foot seas fishing within site of land. Fish were not jumping in the boat, but it was steady fishing for the most part. If we could have gotten away from the sharks and Dolphin it would have been better. They just helped extend the trip each day to around noon, instead of 10am. Caught our biggest mahi mahi to date and 4 big mangroves. Also think we broke off on a decent Cobia the last day.











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[illinoisfisherman]

Very nice !!!

[RiverRunner]

Nice catch, that's quite a mixed bag!

We rode (in the truck) over to Mexico Beach from Carrabelle on the 4th. I couldn't believe how packed St. Joe and MB was! I haven't seen that many people there ever, traffic was almost like Destin. I pray Carrabelle doesn't get that way, which my buddy that has a place in MB said, give it a few years! UGH!

[John21:6]

Good job. Did you catch the mangroves on top or the bottom?

[bbb]

The Mangroves were caught on the bottom using pinfish.

We chummed all 4 days and only got the Red snapper up one day. I still don’t understand how some days they come right up and other days, nothing in 4 hours of chumming.


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[zload]

I was over there the week before the 4th, 1st time back since Michael made his appearance. We saw the worst shark activity I've seen over there in roughly 95'-100' depths. Didn't chum but the snapper seemed to be much higher up in the water column than prior year trips even w/o chumming. I caught the biggest snapper "head" I've ever reeled in... seemed like we might get 1-2 to the boat before the tax man showed up and would just circle the boat waiting. Once we lost one or two ARS I just moved on to the next spot.

I was moving from one spot to another at high idle and my S-I-L who had never done any type of offshore fishing before was letting his bait drag on the water next to the boat and I didn't notice it. Pandemonium began when a roughly 35-40# amberjack (bottomed out my 30# Boga) showed him that was not a good idea... he held onto the rod but fighting a green amberjack with 6' of line out was quite the experience for him, after we released it I offered to let him try it again but he passed. I played guide for the most part and my 2 girls and their spouses managed to boat at least 1 22" - 24" snapper each.

Heading into the weekend with the full moon the bite dropped off and it was HOT but nice seas other than Monday/Tuesday. I was dropping live pinfish and getting no takers at all on 7/2.

Trigger fish were prevalent with any smaller hook/bait and we caught some legal lane snapper.

Lots of new apartments/condos(?) near the MB boat ramp, cleaning station and freezer unit were up and running. Didn't see many big ARS being cleaned most seemed to be in the 18" - 20" range other than one monster that came from 140'. Some guys came into the PSJ marina with the smallest dolphin I've ever seen kept, I swear it would have taken a whole fish to make a decent sandwich.

The new PSJ marina is really nice, not fully up to speed yet as a couple of days got there and they had no ice so had to loop back around to BWO. Cleaning station grinder was full and/or inoperable, carcasses left on the table and lots of flies which is more of a visitor issue other than appears the grinder unit/cleaning area is just to small for that size marina. Met the general mgr. and dockmaster on day 1 they and the dock crew were very friendly and helpful when fueling up including one young man riding with me from the fuel dock over to my slip and helping get me tied up on day 1. Having a wet slip for the week made for a much better daily start compared to dealing with the ramp follies.

We stayed in MB, construction was everywhere and it did seem to be generally busier than any trip before... I guess they are finally recovering from Michael, hit Joe Momma's pizza and had to wait an hour on a Thursday evening and almost 45 minutes at Peppers on Sunday evening in PSJ. Had a nice breakfast at Shipwreck in MB Monday morning as we were leaving to come home.

(sorry for the thread highjack but been too busy to report and the kids have the few pics we took).

[doomtrpr_z71]

I've been planning on taking my boat over to MB myself and these pictures ain't helping , I want to catch ars out of my own boat.

Y'all look y'all had an awesome time!

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[bbb]

I’m in a 21’ Bay boat so Mexico Beach works for me as its only a 6 mile run to reefs holding legal size snapper. I usually run up to 14 miles out then work my way back to 6.

When grouper opens I’ll run out of Carrabelle.


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[doomtrpr_z71]

I'm in a similar situation so hopefully I'll be able to make it down to give it a whirl during the fall ars season.

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