chrystal river 6/30
Posted: July 2nd, 2007, 11:15 am
Had my first opportunity to fish Chrystal River last Saturday. It was a day of strikes and gutters.
GUTTERS
the ramp-WTF. I've never seen another ramp that compared. Boats parked in the ramp before anyone was close with a trailer, collissions, trucks stopped in the road with all 4 doors open. My buddy's wife actually had to get on the dock and get somebody to move a boat so we could get back on the trailer at the end of the day. No way I could fit a 20' Angler between the SeaPro and Angler that were tied up. Saw a guy drive his Ranger skiff direclty into the side of another Anger. A third guy bust a prop on the rocks behind the launch. Amazing we didn't see a fight. Makes me appreciate the N. Florida ramps.
Water clarity-nothing chrystal about it. Visibility couldn't have been more than 3-4 feet.
STRIKES
not wanting to get too shallow in the Angler we started drifting in about 12 feet and drfited all the way out to 20. Caught 3 grouper up to 18"s on trout rods, some trout and sharks. Those grouper sure are fun
In 20' we noticed some good structure and decided to sit and chum. Soon after we boated a short a cobia, then the apex predator arrived. Didn't take long to get my friend's wife hooked up to about a 10' hammer head on my 9500ss with 100#pp.
Well, she held the rod, with a belt for help. He held her. And I chased that thing for probably 1 mile or mile and half over the next 20 minutes. Sure was fun. We caught several other sharks up to about 75#'s, but this one wasn't screwing around.
Finally, for those of you searching for tarpoon (CHALK), they are everywhere. Pods of 4-5 fish. They aren't exploding bait like I have seen from larger pods previously, but rolling the surface. We only managed to hook one, and it broke my buddy's leader on the second run. These fish can definitely be caught as the didn't seemed as spooky as some I've targeted previously, and there were lots of pods. Probably saw close to 100 tarpoon on the day and never saw a group larger than 5-6 fish.
Definitely a place I would like to explore further.
GUTTERS
the ramp-WTF. I've never seen another ramp that compared. Boats parked in the ramp before anyone was close with a trailer, collissions, trucks stopped in the road with all 4 doors open. My buddy's wife actually had to get on the dock and get somebody to move a boat so we could get back on the trailer at the end of the day. No way I could fit a 20' Angler between the SeaPro and Angler that were tied up. Saw a guy drive his Ranger skiff direclty into the side of another Anger. A third guy bust a prop on the rocks behind the launch. Amazing we didn't see a fight. Makes me appreciate the N. Florida ramps.
Water clarity-nothing chrystal about it. Visibility couldn't have been more than 3-4 feet.
STRIKES
not wanting to get too shallow in the Angler we started drifting in about 12 feet and drfited all the way out to 20. Caught 3 grouper up to 18"s on trout rods, some trout and sharks. Those grouper sure are fun
In 20' we noticed some good structure and decided to sit and chum. Soon after we boated a short a cobia, then the apex predator arrived. Didn't take long to get my friend's wife hooked up to about a 10' hammer head on my 9500ss with 100#pp.
Well, she held the rod, with a belt for help. He held her. And I chased that thing for probably 1 mile or mile and half over the next 20 minutes. Sure was fun. We caught several other sharks up to about 75#'s, but this one wasn't screwing around.
Finally, for those of you searching for tarpoon (CHALK), they are everywhere. Pods of 4-5 fish. They aren't exploding bait like I have seen from larger pods previously, but rolling the surface. We only managed to hook one, and it broke my buddy's leader on the second run. These fish can definitely be caught as the didn't seemed as spooky as some I've targeted previously, and there were lots of pods. Probably saw close to 100 tarpoon on the day and never saw a group larger than 5-6 fish.
Definitely a place I would like to explore further.
