BigBendFishing.Net

After kissing the wife and daughters good-bye for their trip over the hills and through the woods to grandma's house, I headed down to Mashes Sands to put in and try my luck at trolling up some grouper. I got to the ramp a little before 0800 and found that the canal looked awfully shallow. Low tide was supposed to be close to 1000, so I figured I would be good to go. Shortly thereafter, I managed to back my trailer off the edge of the ramp and got it hung. I launched the boat, but the trailer wasn't budging. In turn, I had to unhook the trailer and manually lift the trailer up over the edge (mind you this is a 24 foot dual axle trailer, thank goodness that water "lightens" up things), then reattach the trailer, lock it in 4-wheel drive and pull her out. After that exciting start to the day, I putted out to the channel markers and managed to bump bottom only a couple of times before finding deep water.

By 0900 I was in the area I wanted to troll and lo and behold, I didn't troll 10 minutes before the gag below (lil over 24 inches) came aboard. Within 30 more minutes, I landed two more keeper gags, but "keeper" is a relative term. They were turned back to fight another day. I missed a couple more over the next 30 minutes. After that I tried my hand a bottom fishing and caught a boat load of grunts and one very stout Cobia (over 35 inches at the fork). Ironically, due to the constant stealing of bait by the grunts, I had switched to a lighter rod/reel (Penn 209) and that's what I caught the cobia on. As you can imagine, it was one heck of a fight. I manged to gaff him in the mouth and land him, take a few photos with my phone, and then release him. Unfortunately I didn't have my regular camera, in turn, I don't have a picture that I can upload to the site (I haven't figured out how to upload BBerry photos).

I headed back to the ramp around 1300 and was concerned to see that no water had come in and in fact, it looked a little lower. I was very cautious about backing the trailer down and had to do several in the boat/out of the boat moves to winch the boat up tight. A big "thanks" to the two Georgia fellas who who watched this happening and didn't offer up a hand. Speaking of hands, on one of my cranking trips, I had to let off the crank to straighten out the strap and when it came loose the handle put a whoppin on my left hand. I'm sure some of you fellas have been in that boat before and can relate.

Besides the challenging start and finish of the trip, overall it was a great day. The weather was beautiful, the seas were great, and I made it back home in time to go sit in a deer stand this evening.

The gags were caught in 35 foot of water with stretch 30's (mullet color and fire tiger).

Ya'll have a good Thanksgiving tomorrow.

Scoop

Good day, Scoop Sea. I hope the buggered-up hand isn't the one that holds your trigger-finger.

I did the trailer deal we hooked it with the anchor and hoisted it up. It took two to do it. I would be more sorry for you if I had gone today or you had let me go with you.
Don't you owe me a fishing trip?
Glad you made it safe I will take the bro in law Fri or Sat if the weather allows.

Thanks Harmsway. Luckily it was my left hand. The swelling has gone down thank goodness.


WAM: Heck, I wish I had a partner yesterday, I sure hated throwing nice sized gags back, at least we could have had another one in the boat. Good luck if you go this weekend.

Ya'll have a good Thanksgiving today.

very nice

That damn handle. Yes, i have had that happen. Bad things like that happen when i'm in a rush and/or frustrated.

Glad you made a good day out of the trip. I need to give that area a try sometime. I fish out of St. Marks.

You can do the anchore trick by yourself also "I can attest to that" you just catch the trailer with the anchore, pick up the trailer with the anchore and tie it off to a cleat, then pull forward with the truck "hopefully enuff that you don't have to get back in the water to release the boat from the trailer"
Glad ya got out there and managed to catch a few

Thanks Wevans for that tip, luckily it was warm yesterday, but with the winter low tides, it could get a lot worse. I hope I don't find myself in that situation ever again.

Thanks for the good fishing report. My daddy always said, "A bad start, a good day of fishing". He didn't tell the one of a bad start and a bad finish. Hum.....

The hand deal has happened to me. A neighbor did that same thing with a hay dollie and broke two bones in his hand. It could even rap you in the mouth. A bad dude!

I saw the trailer act once in real cold weather. They ended up pulling the trailer apart.

One reason I use the boat lift at Keaton.

Glad your hand is better.

How deep were you trolling? Nice gag! Last time we caught them at 29 feet on pink and chartruse stretch 30's

I was trolling in 35 feet. This gag was caught on the mullet color Stretch, a coupe of other keepers were caught on a firetiger.

Thanks for the report, Scoop!

Great report Scoop. Don't fish much off shore anymore, but when I see a report like yours, I get a minor itch to head to Grouper country. Do ya'll think my 14 footer with a 35hp could make it off-shore. I had it in 36 foot one time. All I could catch was danged ole catfish. Course, ain't too many Grouper in the Flint River.

Great report. Thanks for sharing.

I saw a guy almost get killed at St. Andrews in PBC with that handle. He was squatting on the tongue in front of the winch while his girlfriend was backing their 32 foot CC down the ramp. I looked and saw him disengage the lock on the winch at precisely the same time she hit the brakes. The strap was still hooked up. The trailer and truck stopped but the boat didn't. The handle whipped around missing his head by an inch but clipping his collar bone and wrist I don't know how many times before he fell off. At first I thought it hit him in the head and that he was a goner. The boat didn't stop until it reached the end of the strap with a huge jerk. The handle spun so fast that it broke off and flew into the parking lot. We got the boat back on the trailer, and then off the truck and they headed to the ER with a broken collar bone and arm. The girlfriend was on the phone as they pulled out cussing the boat dealership up one side and down the other for giving them a "messed" up boat and trailer.

It was just one of those reminders that things can happen so fast!

Glad yours wasn't worse Scoop!