BigBendFishing.Net

Finally, some decent weather with low wind! We planned on heading out of Shields at 6:00 am, but forgot they were closed on Monday! So, no boat in water overnight. Would have to call in the morning to have her put in at 7:00 am. Headed out at 7:30 ish to OAR 2. Catherine doesn't have her line in the water 3 minutes and connects with a Cobia! It's a keeper. Got it to the boat and it ran under the boat and cut the line. Next up was a flounder. Keeper, but small so threw him back. 24" mackerel that went in the cooler with a few nice size white grunt. Oh and a big puffer fish that the girls had fun taking pictures of. Headed over to the 24 barge and to a few spots some friends gave us within a mile or so. Caught a few more grunt, a nice keeper flounder and..... a 15" Hogfish. Finished out with a Gag Grouper, but only 19". and a 4' shark.

The water was glass or less than one foot roll all day. All in all as great day to be fishing!

Jumptrout51 wrote:https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... =1&theater

Nice day of catchin'
Looks like the seas were great
now for some good eating

Great day, we're heading out here very soon to see what we can find.

How long does it take to get to OAR reef from lighthouse? and how deep is it? Thanks

OAR 2 is 13 miles from the lighthouse. We cruise at around 24 mph. It took us about an hour. If I recall, water depth was 27 feet where we were.

With your big screen and surround sound on , you are there before you know it

Funny you should say that! I told Ken we need to put a fold down outdoor flat screen on the back ski tower and install one of those small satellites. Don't think that's going to happen!

Good report. Y'all be careful going out that far in a pontoon boat. I'm sure you know how quickly seas can become dangerous in the summer. I can't imaging a tooner taking 4-5 footers.

Yep! We are very mindful of the weather and cautious. We only go that far out on calm days and watch the weather carefully. The first inkling of seas picking up we head back. Believe it or not, that boat with three 27" toons, solid aluminum sidewalls, 80 gallon fuel tank, 250 Merc Verado, etc., weighs in at 6,500 lbs. It has been sea tested from Ft. Lauderdale to Bimini, Key West to the Dry Tortugas and elsewhere. Despite the fact that it apparently can handle some pretty rough weather, we don't venture out like that unless the weather looks great! No taking chances here!

Also remember gags are closed in state waters( 4 counties) now. It would have been more of a If it was over 22".

We couldn't manage to get a keeper grouper in state waters before the season closed. So, when the weather was favorable yesterday, we headed out to federal waters to see if we could get a keeper. No luck though! Those days are few and far between. Wish we could have caught one, but we still got a good haul for the day and had a blast!

I realized as I typed that you said oar 2. My mistake, def in fed waters. Keep after it, you will get that keeper gag. For me a cobia is much more fun to catch. I bet that big cobia gave young Catherine all she wanted. My arms are still sore from the one I caught on Sunday. Go get em!!!