After catching bait in the grass flats on the north side of Dog Island, we headed to a rocky ledge where we put a 53 pound amberjack in the boat last year. In about 70 feet, however, the sonar showed what appeared to be a fishy pile of rocks. So we stopped to check it out. Small snapper and seabass hit our cut bait but nothing took our jigs or live bait. Video from the GoPro that I dropped down and reviewed after the trip showed a variety of soft corals and baitfish consisting mostly of tomtates.
We continued on our long run through choppy seas to the rocky ledge. As expected, the sonar showed oversized arches stacked on each other. We were on top of a big school of amberjack.
My friend’s son hooked a big fish about as soon as his bait hit the water. Surprisingly, it wasn’t an amberjack. It was a cobia. The fish was about 33 inches to the fork and was released after a quick measurement and picture.
Next, the nephew was on a fish. The fish was bigger than most of the fish he had caught in lakes of Wisconsin, but not big enough to set his arms on fire.
A few minutes later, I was on a big fish and I wisely handed the rod to the nephew. The drag on the reel was set to its max of about 40 pounds and the fish still managed to pull out line on many of its runs. The fish might have been legal had the season not been abruptly canceled.
While everyone else was using live bait, I was using frozen bait. After the bait hung near the bottom for a while, I felt a fish tap and then mouth the bait. I slowly reeled-in a little line and the beast hit hard and dove down into the rocks. I was thinking I had a grouper or a nurse shark. I pulled and pulled on the rod, I couldn’t get the fish to budge. In hopes of outsmarting the fish, we moved the boat past its hole so I could pull from a different angle. The trick worked and the fish came up and made several runs before we got it to the surface. It turned out to be a tank of a red snapper that was about 34 inches in length and weighed over 17 pounds.
The GoPro showed a wide variety of fish at the amberjack spot. These fish included triggerfish, Atlantic spadefish, amberjack, gag grouper, mangrove snapper, white grunts, and a scamp grouper.
The bite slowed and it was time to move a few miles to one of my favorite spots of the last year. My friend’s son had a fish on right away. Then his rod doubled over and the line peeled off the spool as we watched a shark swimming around 30 to 40 feet below the boat. “Keep that shark busy while I bring in my own fish,” I said. But my friend’s son managed to yank his fish out of the shark’s mouth. Meanwhile, the shark went after mine. I reeled as fast as I could, and managed to free my fish, too. We ended up with two shredded red grouper.
After too many tangles with sharks, we headed in the direction of home and hoped to find some keeper fish on the way. For some reason, I headed to a spot that hadn’t been productive all year. This time, it was covered in red snapper.
Here’s how we did:
Before putting the boat back into storage at Martin Marine, we gassed up at Pirates Cove Marina. This is a convenient place for fuel, bait, ice, and boating supplies right across from the main public boat ramp at Carrabelle. This is Marcus, the owner.
One more pictures from this trip check out my Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/p/DPPyFBmjN5S ... QwaWR3NnJj
