St Marks Offshore 1/7/2012 "AJs all around" (Pic intense)
Posted: January 9th, 2012, 8:59 pm
Well, the crew for today was myself, dad, Kylie (wifey), Don (Greenbone), and Jim (Rx Fisher). We pushed away from the dock at 745 am saturday to a calm and foggy st marks river. Well, at our first area we couldnt find any live bait so we pulled up anchor and headed to the seccond stop. Only problem was when we pulled anchor the anchore clip that holds the chain to the rope had rusted and broke off and all we pulled up was a rope with noe anchor or chain 
. So, we made a quick stop at shields and 75 bucks later we were on our way again. Second stop produced a plentiful amount of bait in 30 minutes, mostly pins with some live pigfish mixed in. Things were looking up. Since grouper season has been shut down, we opted to put some different type of meat in the box (thats what $he said 
) so we focused our efforts on Amberjack and Sea Bass. We pushed through the mouth of the st marks at 945 and headed the 40+ miles off into the abyss of the flat calm seas. It was a really nice slick calm sea for the first 35 miles but the last 6 or 7 it was brutal. Out of nowhere a stiff 15-20kt wind came up outta the SW making it tough to get to our hole. There were some solid 4-5 foot swells mixed in there! We pushed through it in hopes of hitting some pay dirt. Upon araival, the Furuno was completly "Reded" out with swarms of AJ's. My father, wife, and Don had never caught keeper AJs before so they were up first. Kylie struck first and was on with a stud. She faught it like a champ and within 10 minutes had the 20+ AJ within gaff range. I got a good shot on him right behind the gills and into the box he went. Don was up next but to our dismay it was 12+ pound Red Snapper, back in the drink he goes 
. Next drift Don hooks the man and fought him like a heavy weight back and forth and finally put the 28 pounder in the boat. I couldnt stand it so I grabbed a big pinfish on and on the drop got nailed. I made quick order ot the 18 pounder and in the box he went. Dad and Jim were left and on the next drift Dad hooks a good one. He fought him for a while and couldnt believe the brute power those "things" posess. Jim was last to round off our limit but didnt dissapoint. He made short work of his 20 pounder. A round of high fives and we opted to head in to some calmer water and hit some Sea Bass. Within 10 miles of heading north into thte 3-5 foot swell she laid down again and it was flat. Its really wired, I have never seen it go from slick to rough and rough to slick so quickly. Anyways were hit a few holes on the way in and put 20 nice Sea Bass in the boat to 15". We got checked at the mouth of the river by a nice FWC officer who mentioned to us we had the best catch of the day because only one other boat had fish he had checked and he said they were just three small Red Grouper. Anyhow, we all had a blast even though we drove for 4 hours and fished for 3 lol.. 
! Total round trip was 108 miles! Whatever, it is what it is, you gotta do whats necessary to bring some din din home, wished we could have stayed within 15 miles and kept gags but oh well. We had a blast and you cant beat slick seas for most of the day and catching great fish with great friends! -Tight lines
Final tally:
5 Amberjack to 28 pounds
20 Sea Bas to 15"
Lots of sore arms....
What awaited us below...
Wifey hooked up to her first AJ
Me gettin in on the action
Don bowed up...
The first of our double up
Nice gaff shot Jim!
Don and I with the big fish of the day
Dad hooked up with his first ever Amberjack
Don with a good gaff shot
Another Aj just beggin to be turned into smoked fish dip
Jim finishin out our limit
On the way back in once we crossed back into calm waters, heading to the Seas Bass holes.
A happy crew...
A happy Don England
The carnage...
The crew with Dads boat in the background....
. So, we made a quick stop at shields and 75 bucks later we were on our way again. Second stop produced a plentiful amount of bait in 30 minutes, mostly pins with some live pigfish mixed in. Things were looking up. Since grouper season has been shut down, we opted to put some different type of meat in the box (thats what $he said ) so we focused our efforts on Amberjack and Sea Bass. We pushed through the mouth of the st marks at 945 and headed the 40+ miles off into the abyss of the flat calm seas. It was a really nice slick calm sea for the first 35 miles but the last 6 or 7 it was brutal. Out of nowhere a stiff 15-20kt wind came up outta the SW making it tough to get to our hole. There were some solid 4-5 foot swells mixed in there! We pushed through it in hopes of hitting some pay dirt. Upon araival, the Furuno was completly "Reded" out with swarms of AJ's. My father, wife, and Don had never caught keeper AJs before so they were up first. Kylie struck first and was on with a stud. She faught it like a champ and within 10 minutes had the 20+ AJ within gaff range. I got a good shot on him right behind the gills and into the box he went. Don was up next but to our dismay it was 12+ pound Red Snapper, back in the drink he goes . Next drift Don hooks the man and fought him like a heavy weight back and forth and finally put the 28 pounder in the boat. I couldnt stand it so I grabbed a big pinfish on and on the drop got nailed. I made quick order ot the 18 pounder and in the box he went. Dad and Jim were left and on the next drift Dad hooks a good one. He fought him for a while and couldnt believe the brute power those "things" posess. Jim was last to round off our limit but didnt dissapoint. He made short work of his 20 pounder. A round of high fives and we opted to head in to some calmer water and hit some Sea Bass. Within 10 miles of heading north into thte 3-5 foot swell she laid down again and it was flat. Its really wired, I have never seen it go from slick to rough and rough to slick so quickly. Anyways were hit a few holes on the way in and put 20 nice Sea Bass in the boat to 15". We got checked at the mouth of the river by a nice FWC officer who mentioned to us we had the best catch of the day because only one other boat had fish he had checked and he said they were just three small Red Grouper. Anyhow, we all had a blast even though we drove for 4 hours and fished for 3 lol.. ! Total round trip was 108 miles! Whatever, it is what it is, you gotta do whats necessary to bring some din din home, wished we could have stayed within 15 miles and kept gags but oh well. We had a blast and you cant beat slick seas for most of the day and catching great fish with great friends! -Tight linesFinal tally:
5 Amberjack to 28 pounds
20 Sea Bas to 15"
Lots of sore arms....
What awaited us below...
Wifey hooked up to her first AJ
Me gettin in on the action
Don bowed up...
The first of our double up
Nice gaff shot Jim!
Don and I with the big fish of the day
Dad hooked up with his first ever Amberjack
Don with a good gaff shot
Another Aj just beggin to be turned into smoked fish dip
Jim finishin out our limit
On the way back in once we crossed back into calm waters, heading to the Seas Bass holes.
A happy crew...
A happy Don England
The carnage...
The crew with Dads boat in the background....