Carabelle 06May07 Red Snapper and Big Cobia day
Posted: May 7th, 2007, 7:34 pm
Some of ya'll who are dual members on FS Forum may have seen this report already.....for those who aren't....check it out.
What a great day. I tried to get some other friends to go with me, but as of Saturday evening at 6 p.m. it looked like I wasn't going fishing... I wanted to go so bad since I was in South Padre Island last week and the weather was bad. Sooooo...I called up Jeff Whalen( FS forum member Iamhybris) Saturday night and asked him if he would like to join me for a snapper fishing trip out of Carabelle. He got a friend of his, Matt, to join us. Jeff was more excited than I was I think.
We got on the water at 8:30 and it was beautiful and slick calm. We went to an area west of the O tower where I have had good luck with red snapper in the past. We tried one number I had and there was nothing but bait stealers biting there. So we moved about 2 miles and found some good hard bottom. After only a few drops it was FISH ON!
Then Jeff hooked this BIGGUN!
We caught another big one, but someone, who will be unnamed, had butterfingers.... SPLASH....... We had an escapee!
Oh well, we practiced good conservation. The fish gods will pay us back later. Caught two throwback snapper and another keeper that was about 17 1/2". We did not catch many that were under sized. 
Here is Matt with a 17 incher..
The bite turned off so I decided to take us to some live bottom numbers that were to the south of us in 96-100 ft of water. We get there, deploy the drift sock...(That is the best purchase I have made so far.....) and we all three drop down.....IT WAS ON LIKE DONKEY KONG!!!!
We caught some more snapper and almost got our limit on them. Then I got hammered by a bucketmouth "sea possum"... He was nice! Here I am holding his slippery self up.
We then all started catching sharks...we released them with hooks in mouth.....I was not risking bit fingers! We already have a bad record for hooks in thumbs in my boat.
Then a school of 6 porpoise showed up shutting down the fishing..
We move about .4 mi to another number I had and started fishing it. We were catching nothing but bait stealers. I had something hit me pretty good.....it kind of fought like a shark....it was pulling drag on a Okuma Convector reel with the drag hammered down! I got broke off. About that time we see something in the water...and it was big and brown!!! It 'twas no shark and it 'twas no porpoise.... It was COBIA. It was nosing around the drift sock out behind the boat.
Matt pitched his dead spanish sardine head at it and the cobia just nosed it. Jeff had a plan! We had been keeping a few sand perch in the livewell for grouper candy...Jeff grabbed one, hooked it up and fed it to the Cobia and let it eat it good.
Here is Jeff posing with his monster (of course after we put "the equalizer" on it's noggin).
Here it is on the floor with little birdies flying around it's head.
Something, maybe a shark had been after this cobia at one time..
We headed in after that..it was 3:50 p.m. and the wind was picking up as advertised by NOAA. Went through some 3 to 4's and some rain showers...but it was not too bad of a ride....I made 18 to 22 kts...
Here I am playing "weighmaster" at C Quarters....
Unloading the beast!
On the filet table before "Jeff the master fish surgeon" sees his "patients".
=)
What a great day with some great fishermen on board.
Hope to repeat this again soon.
What a great day. I tried to get some other friends to go with me, but as of Saturday evening at 6 p.m. it looked like I wasn't going fishing... I wanted to go so bad since I was in South Padre Island last week and the weather was bad. Sooooo...I called up Jeff Whalen( FS forum member Iamhybris) Saturday night and asked him if he would like to join me for a snapper fishing trip out of Carabelle. He got a friend of his, Matt, to join us. Jeff was more excited than I was I think.
We got on the water at 8:30 and it was beautiful and slick calm. We went to an area west of the O tower where I have had good luck with red snapper in the past. We tried one number I had and there was nothing but bait stealers biting there. So we moved about 2 miles and found some good hard bottom. After only a few drops it was FISH ON!
Then Jeff hooked this BIGGUN!
We caught another big one, but someone, who will be unnamed, had butterfingers.... SPLASH....... We had an escapee!
Oh well, we practiced good conservation. The fish gods will pay us back later. Caught two throwback snapper and another keeper that was about 17 1/2". We did not catch many that were under sized. Here is Matt with a 17 incher..
The bite turned off so I decided to take us to some live bottom numbers that were to the south of us in 96-100 ft of water. We get there, deploy the drift sock...(That is the best purchase I have made so far.....) and we all three drop down.....IT WAS ON LIKE DONKEY KONG!!!!
We caught some more snapper and almost got our limit on them. Then I got hammered by a bucketmouth "sea possum"... He was nice! Here I am holding his slippery self up.
We then all started catching sharks...we released them with hooks in mouth.....I was not risking bit fingers! We already have a bad record for hooks in thumbs in my boat.
Then a school of 6 porpoise showed up shutting down the fishing..
We move about .4 mi to another number I had and started fishing it. We were catching nothing but bait stealers. I had something hit me pretty good.....it kind of fought like a shark....it was pulling drag on a Okuma Convector reel with the drag hammered down! I got broke off. About that time we see something in the water...and it was big and brown!!! It 'twas no shark and it 'twas no porpoise.... It was COBIA. It was nosing around the drift sock out behind the boat.
Matt pitched his dead spanish sardine head at it and the cobia just nosed it. Jeff had a plan! We had been keeping a few sand perch in the livewell for grouper candy...Jeff grabbed one, hooked it up and fed it to the Cobia and let it eat it good.
Here is Jeff posing with his monster (of course after we put "the equalizer" on it's noggin).
Here it is on the floor with little birdies flying around it's head.
Something, maybe a shark had been after this cobia at one time..
We headed in after that..it was 3:50 p.m. and the wind was picking up as advertised by NOAA. Went through some 3 to 4's and some rain showers...but it was not too bad of a ride....I made 18 to 22 kts...
Here I am playing "weighmaster" at C Quarters....
Unloading the beast!
On the filet table before "Jeff the master fish surgeon" sees his "patients".
=)
What a great day with some great fishermen on board.
Hope to repeat this again soon.
