Indian Pass 6/20
Posted: June 23rd, 2009, 8:43 pm
Headed to SGI for a week, so I talked the kids into going down Friday night and fishing Sat. since the forecast was for swimming pool like conditions. They fell for the forecast too. I felt the new boat was too much for me to handle without another adult fisherman we decided to take the Pathfinder for one more offshore adventure before selling it or turning it out to pasture for inshore duty only. We made it thru the pass right at 0600 and cruised slowly on smooth seas until the sun was up enough to see. Off course the seas got up a little and I heard from the girls about "my forecast", but we plowed on. It wasn't too bad but my prediction of running 30 miles at 40 mph did not hold. We made it to our bait spot and pulled up some decent livies and tried to go another 10 miles to our furthest number with the plan of working back in toward some sure red grouper territory. The seas were a good 3 feet or more so I decided to stop at a nearer number which I had gotten to fish for a good 30 seconds last trip before being beset upon by a nice squall that chased us back in. With 18 and 15 year old daughters and my son of 13, I became the bait boy and winch. Willie was a little green despite the Scope patch and couldn't quite handle the first bite he got. He handed me the reel and I thought for sure it was an amberjack which my back really didn't want to fight. After a few minutes it was no longer pulling off drag and began to give that telltale twitch of what I hoped we would catch. We were soon seeing color, bright red! The kids eyes were saucers when they saw the size of the snapper we pulled over the gunnel.
We rebaited and made another drift and my younger daughter began groaning. It appeared she was going to follow her rod into the drink when fortunately she pointed the rod at the fish and the 80# braid snapped like some cheap dental floss.
Another drift and my oldest is requesting me do a little winching for her. I get it moving and she finishes it off. A nice red grouper.
On each drift we had another snapper or grouper. On one of the drifts I decided to try a new butterfly jig. I had just hit bottom when my assistance was requested again. I reeled the jig up about 10 turns and put it in the gunnel rod holder. Sissy and I got another red grouper in about the time be heard a loud snap. The braid from my jigging rod was blowing in the wind. The interesting thing was the rod holder was pulled up about 3 inches from the gunnel. The three lag screws had been pulled out of the gunnel just as the line snapped. I had come close to losing the whole rig plus the rod holder.
At this point it was still quite rough and we had a full cooler with 20# of ice and five nice fish. I generally don't like to leave with the fish biting but it was a little rough and I didn't want to push the girls too much. We decided to troll back to pick up the bait trap and put our a Yozuri bonita on some wire with a trolling weight. About three miles into it the rod bowed over twice then released. We had no more hits. When we pulled the line in at the bait spot all we had was the weight. I guessI need a little more wire turning practice.
The trip back in was only highlited by a pod of dolphins swimming with us a ways whcih the girls loved.
Here's a proud dad's pod and the day's catch.
Nuts
We rebaited and made another drift and my younger daughter began groaning. It appeared she was going to follow her rod into the drink when fortunately she pointed the rod at the fish and the 80# braid snapped like some cheap dental floss.
Another drift and my oldest is requesting me do a little winching for her. I get it moving and she finishes it off. A nice red grouper.
On each drift we had another snapper or grouper. On one of the drifts I decided to try a new butterfly jig. I had just hit bottom when my assistance was requested again. I reeled the jig up about 10 turns and put it in the gunnel rod holder. Sissy and I got another red grouper in about the time be heard a loud snap. The braid from my jigging rod was blowing in the wind. The interesting thing was the rod holder was pulled up about 3 inches from the gunnel. The three lag screws had been pulled out of the gunnel just as the line snapped. I had come close to losing the whole rig plus the rod holder.
At this point it was still quite rough and we had a full cooler with 20# of ice and five nice fish. I generally don't like to leave with the fish biting but it was a little rough and I didn't want to push the girls too much. We decided to troll back to pick up the bait trap and put our a Yozuri bonita on some wire with a trolling weight. About three miles into it the rod bowed over twice then released. We had no more hits. When we pulled the line in at the bait spot all we had was the weight. I guessI need a little more wire turning practice.
The trip back in was only highlited by a pod of dolphins swimming with us a ways whcih the girls loved.
Here's a proud dad's pod and the day's catch.
Nuts
Nice job!