SW of Ocklocknee Bay 5/4/03

[d-tox]

Out with Running Bare and BJ. Left at 1100 with a rising tide and great weather. Seas were less than 1 foot with a light breeze and extreme UV. It looked like one of those days in the new boat ads.

Stopped to get some bait with the new sabiki rods. Let me tell you those rods are worth the money. Filled the bait well with almost no hassle and saved the rigs for future use. BJ was the queen of the sabiki rods, she skunked Running Bare and me both.

Fished in 45 to 50 feet on some great structure SW of marker 24. It was grouper city. Sorry, I meant short grouper city. We must have thrown back at least a dozen 19-inch reds and 21 inch gags.

Couldn't stretch them even by jumping up and down on them. I also noticed they swam away kinda funny after we jumped on them. Maybe I'm going to invest in one of these "Fish Racks" to help stretch your catch.

Only two keepers in the box, but it was a great day. Water clarity was great (4.5 out of 5) was water temp was 78 to 80 degrees.

Capt. Jay --- Your leader rigs are excellent. They don't hang up nearly as much as the putting the weight just above the leader knot and the beads help keep the knots from fraying. It's also easy to change the rigs when the bite is on. However, tying 80# fluorocarbon is a pain in the nether region.

Got home well before sundown and BJ grabbed the filet kit and cleaned the fish. RB just how did you manage to get her to clean fish?

[fish finder]

Hey D-Tox,
I'm glad the rigs are working out for you, and yes the flourocarbon leader material is a liitle tougher to get a good clean cinch knot. Since I've been using it, I have had 2 incidents where we have lost fish and come up with the pigtail showing! Not good, because I am very particular about making sure that my leaders are tied tight and fresh. I always pull them very tight on a cleat or something similar because I hate losing a fish that way. I think we just have to watch them a little closer and check the knots more frequently(like after every fish caught)!
It sounds like you had alot of fun, even if there were alot of shorts. I have had similar experiences fishing the area SW also. My last three trips have been to the SE of 24 in the 50-60 ft range and there are definately some bigger grouper there. I'm not sure why, but I still feel that the shrimpers being in the SW area has a negative impact on the bigger grouper.
I missed this past weekend but plan to be on the water this coming weekend. Good report!
Capt. Jay

[TARPONMARK]

Could you please give a description of the sabiki rods you reference. I use sabiki rigs on light spinning rigs. Is this somehow different?

[d-tox]

These are large bore hollow rods with standard spinning reels. It's designed to allow the line to run inside the rod. The sabiki rig is tied to the line. When you reel the line back, the rig is pulled into the hollow rod and stored there. My rod as a small rubber cone, shaped like a trumpet horn, at the end of the rod. The weight that is attached to the sabiki rig is pulled tight to the rubber cone..

Here is the BPS web page:

http://www.basspro-shops.com/servlet/ca ... get=search

If you keep looking, you can get the rod and reel for the $69.