Dropped the Oh Hell! Mechele into the basin at 0630, and decided to get out before the tide got any lower. Turned on the lights and carefully made my way to the first set of stakes. Then, punched in that route from the stakes-offshore, and away I went. First time I had run the boat in dark conditions just with GPS/Chartplotter, and it worked well, although it made me nervous. Had plenty of bait so I went directly to K-tower, to see if an AJ was around. Wind NE 10k, 2' chop inshore, getting a bit bigger as I got offshore. Not real bad, but not friendly, either. Cloudy, threatening sky, but no rain.
Nobody biting at the tower, so went to my first spot in 55'. One just legal gag, then I moved. Nothing legal at the second spot, and as I was leaving something weird happened. As I powered forward to pull anchor with the anchor ball, managed to foul the anchor line in the prop (that wasn't weird, just dumb). Took me a few minutes to clear the prop, and as I did, a very large sportfisherman trolled nearby. I soon saw them stop and I thought they were reeling in a fish. After stowing the anchor rode I began to look for my buoy, and after 5 minutes of looking and no buoy realized they must have caught it on the trolled lure and picked it up and kept it. Or, either that or my buoy got sucked into the Bermuda Triangle. Anyhow, no terrible harm done. Will have to rig a new one.
Decided to check old numbers in 45' that used to be killer but had turned up completely dead after last year's red tide. Lo and behold, grouper on them right away. Put three in the box, then caught another endangered 26" red grouper, which I had to release as I already had iced one. A couple of triggers (one of which bit the heck out of my finger!) also joined the other cool characters, and it was time to go.
On the way in, wind was dropping, seas calming down, but still glad for spray shield and the tabs.
Luck,
EJ
Lanark 10-21
Moderators: bman, Chalk, Tom Keels
