Not helpful, in the getting ready to leave department, was a tired daughter who did not want to get out of bed and proclaimed rather loudly “It’s SUMMER VACATION and I’m not supposed to get up early!!” Finally getting her rallied (but she’s not happy…..) we leave a little late and hit the “Ditch”, making our way north from Palm Valley through four No Wake zones and a number of coming off-plane stops for small boats & kayaks.
Runnin the Ditch
Waiting for us at the Mayport ramp is AJ who has patiently waited for us for quite awhile now. At the ramp we hear about plentiful bait 5 miles due east but we didn’t really find the bait and we only picked up a couple of cigar minnows. Already having lots of frozen bait we headed off to one of AJ’s spots he thought we’d do well at. Seas are outstanding, the run out was easy, so much in fact, that 25 miles out Kaitlyn is laying down in the bow reading a book. It’s gonna be a great day!
Prior to the spot AJ told me that this spot has never disappointed and that after just a few drifts we should have some good red snappers. I was laughing as I told him that was a bold assertion and that I’ve said things like that before only to have the bite be less than stellar.
First drift and two lines down, one with a live 6 ½ inch “ICW Special” and the other with a frozen cigar minnow. Casey gets hooked up using the live bait and immediately gets pinned to the gunnel. He’s having a tough time so I go over to help him get the rod off the gunnel. Meanwhile on the other side of the boat AJ is helping my daughter with the rod as whatever is on the end is trying to get back down to the bottom. After a short fight both fish come up and Kaitlyn has got her first red snapper and Casey has an outstanding gag that later at the dock would go 16.5 lbs on the JOSFC scale. His largest gag to date (pretty good for a 10 yr old) and he’s pumped!!
First couple of fish of the day
Kait’s snap & Casey’s 16.5 lb gag
The bite after that chilled and after a number of drifts with nothing but a small beeliner we decided to try another nearby spot. Reeling up lines Casey stated he had a fish on but his line was way off the side of the boat at a 40° angle. Thinking it might be a cobia that didn’t know it was hooked I loosened the drag (it was locked down for bottom fishing) and he continued to bring the fish up. AJ was the first to identify it and he quickly got the gaff and wasted no time in gaffing it.
AJ at the gaff
Casey’s first African Pompano
After a couple of pictures we then tried a few more drifts with nothing to show for it and decided to move inshore to play with some more cooperative fish: beeliners. It took a couple of anchoring attempts to get the boat in the right position but once we did the fishing was easy.
Casey’s first ever beeliner (jerked out of the mouth of a cuda)
This was Kaitlyn’s kind of fishing as she really enjoyed the multiple hook rigs and bringing up multiple fish with one drop of the line.
Kaitlyn’s turn
Casey & AJ with a trio
Taking a break from helping the kids, AJ started playing with the AJs.
AJ w/ an AJ
After that the kid’s attention turned to AJs with AJ rigging up a bait for the kids and giving advice.
Casey’s turn at getting drug around the boat
Casey’s 23 lb AJ
After that Casey went back to the beeliners using his small rod w/ 20 lb test and as he was bringing one up (we were all watching) all of a sudden his rod doubled over and we thought a cuda ate the beeliner as drag started ripping off.
This is gonna take a while
With Casey busy fighting his fish, on the other side of the boat I dropped down a live grunt with the intention of letting Kaitlyn fight an AJ too. As the rod doubled over Kaitlyn did pretty well with the big rod and after a short tug of war she brought up a fine red snapper. I couldn’t get her to hold the snap for a photo but she wanted AJ to hold the fish and only then she would be in the picture.
Kaitlyn & AJ with her 2nd red snapper of the day. A fine one for an 8 yr old!
Through all this Casey was still fighting his fish but we weren’t too sure who was whipping who. At one point he tried putting the rod in the rod holder and fighting the fish from there but the peanut gallery immediately went into heckling mode and we convinced him that tough guys fight their fish holding onto the rod. Finally after at least an honest fifteen minute fight/stalemate Casey finally whips his AJ and as it comes over the gunnel Casey loudly proclaims “I’m ready to go home!!!”. The kids caught a ton of beeliners and were amazed at all the cudas and other fish swimming by. At one point we had a cobia of at least 50 lbs swim by but weren’t quick enough to present something interesting enough. Although during the day I heard two requests from Kaitlyn to head home once we got into the beeliners and AJs she didn’t want to leave especially when we were playfully telling her it was time to go. Casey continued to chatter about “what a great fish!” it was and how hard it fought on that lite rod & reel when he added, “This is the best day of my life!!
That was a fitting way to end the day!
Casey’s 26 lb reef donkey (both are whipped)
Running back the seas were great and in the channel we stopped for a quick photo of a freighter in the channel-we don’t have this kind of traffic in Cedar Key where we used to fish.
Running through a small rain squall at Mayport we got to the ramp and temporarily tied up in the rain to take advantage of the JOSFC scale to weigh the kids fish for entry into the Youth category of the annual JOSFC contest. While we were doing that the kids were camped out in the center console sitting out of the rain-too funny. After that we called AJ’s parents and got permission for him to come home with us (my children were excited about that!). We ran a total of 148 miles and if anyone is curious it’s 22 miles one way from the Palm Valley 210 bridge to the Mayport ramp via the ICW (~50 minutes). At the dock AJ was again extremely helpful and cut my time in half by helping with the fish cleaning and other chores.
This was our first time fishing with AJ and he was outstanding to have on the boat. All day long he truly enjoyed helping the kids enjoy the day and it was evident too that he knows his way around a boat and what it takes to catch fish. He’s an outstanding young man and we look forward to fishing with him again!
Brian
Hoo Yah!!
