St. Marks Offshore - 02-09-2002

Post by **Tom Keels** » February 12th, 2002, 8:48 am

Departed Shell Island aboard the Running Bare about 7:30 and headed for a spot in 46 feet. Water was a little choppier than expected so we slowed down to keep from beating the boat. Trolled stretch 30's and a Stretch 25 Loud the last 2 miles to the spot. We got no hits the first time across the spot but coming back over the 25 loud got hit by a 21 3/4" Gag. As Jim reeled in the line with the chartruese stretch 30 it got hit by a 23" red.

Lines back out and the 25 loud gets hit again by a 22" gag. These fish were very aggressive coming up to hit a 25 in 46 feet. No more hits on the 30's but 2 more shorts on the 25 louds.

We decedied to drift over the bottom where we were getting hits and immediately we are into fish. I put my rod in the rod holder to grab a sandwich. I sat down, took a bite and I looked a my rod tip that was quickly trying to touch the water. I throw my sandwich grab the rod and the tug of war begins. After some drag pulling runs on a locked down 3/0 the fish come to the top. Huge gag of at least 30" and very fat.

After a few breakoffs and the turning of the tide, the bite pretty much stopped. We moved to a couple of spots in 30 feet with good shows of fish but no keepers.

Ran in on seas of less than 2 feet and fish were cleaned and back at the house at 5:30.

Great fun day on the water. I captured some of the action on my video camera, but only enough to make me wish I would have recorded more. The video came out great and I really want to record an entire trip one day. but it's just so hard when the fish are calling!:lol:

Final Tally-

6 gags to 31"
1 Red 23"
5 Rock Bass to 15"
1 big grunt

Post by **Sawbones** » February 12th, 2002, 9:18 am

Good job, Tom. Were you in the general vicinity of where we were last time?

Post by **Tom Keels** » February 12th, 2002, 10:09 am

Bones,

No we were SE of 24 about 7 miles.

phish-n-fool · Post by **phish-n-fool** » February 12th, 2002, 5:11 pm

Tom-

Sounds like a good day,, saw the pix...nice! Were they taken as a still shot from the new video cam??
Also, didn't know that Manns made an S25 Loud, thought it was only available in the 30's. The only place I could find a LOUD back in September was at Crum's in Panacea.

Know where I could find a 25 Loud...I seem to get more strikes on the 25 than the 30.

Sorry for all the questions, but if you could please.....

Post by **Tom Keels** » February 12th, 2002, 5:31 pm

The pics were taken with my digital still camera a Kodak DC215.

I have had my S25 loud since when Capt. Ken was selling them on his website last year. I know I saw the S30 Loud at West Marine but I think I saw the S25 Loud there as well.

phish-n-fool · Post by **phish-n-fool** » February 12th, 2002, 5:36 pm

Thanks!

Captain Ken has all the cool stuff or makes it himself

Is the color of the 25 loud the same as the 30 Loud (i.e. chartruese/orange)?

Post by **Tom Keels** » February 12th, 2002, 6:10 pm

Spear Bender · Post by **Spear Bender** » February 12th, 2002, 10:40 pm

Tom:
It sure was a great day out there!!! Capt K and I had our dive charter that day and enjoyed listening to those stories of fish being caught between 'Runningbare' and 'Kailover'!!

j/k
Well we had 4 divers and ended up with 19 hog snapper and 3 groupers.