Pensacola Fishing Forum / Offshore Fishing / Offshore Reports

131 report

Kevdog540 — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 18:03:15 GMT

We left out of the pass in Orange Beach at 6:00AM on the way to the nipple. For some reason we decided to go on down to the 131 hole instead and troll back to the nipple. We arrived and lines were in the water at 7. We didn't see much of anything, a bunch of scattered weeds, nothing very defined, and a few flying fish. after 2 hours of big bagging around we stumbled on a nice tide line/weed line about 2 miles west of the 131, running east to west. We started trolling it with high hopes. We weren't on it 2 minutes and the rod with a med YoZuri Bonita(Black /Pink) started screaming. 29 lb Wahoo, we were pumped. About 15 minutes later another one this time on a rigged Ballyhoo/pink skirt. 38 lb Wahoo. Had a few more hits but no takers. We had a great day.

Red Fish off the beach

GatorDoc — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 00:14:32 GMT

Went out today around 2 pm. Headed to 3 Barges to do a little bottom fishing, but no luck. Decided to troll around that area for a bit. Noticed a spot on the fish finder I wanted to try to bottom fish, but heard my line start screaming. Grab the pole and added drag, as line was being stripped off rapidly. Finally got the line back in thinking I had a King, but alas I had a very nice Red Fish. Had to let it go as it was over 27 inches. I didn't think you could catch Red Fish trolling. Here are a few photos to enjoy!

GatorDoc

Tim's Destin Report - Sept 5

timl74 — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 11:18:31 GMT

Headed out at 6am with Rauber and his dad, Emoyer, and the Shanester. Stopped outside the pass and tried catching some hardtails. Got a couple, some cigs, and we headed on out. Seas were 1-2 with chop on top. We stopped off on a hole about 15 miles out to look for some larger live bait. Emoyer's dad sends down a butterfly jig and up comes a 40" cobe. Not a bad start. Didn't catch much we could use as bait, so we headed on out. Seas slicked off and was beautiful. We got to mingo ridge and everyone started jiggin. We jigged all the way down the ridge, nothin. We ran a couple of miles east to some other spots, nothing on the jigs. We went south to 250ft of water, and a nice 10lb snapper comes up, vented and sent back down. We go back to mingo ridge and try bait. 2 hook rigs went down and up comes these 15-18" mingos, we got 17 of em total. We got 1 alamco off of the ridge too. Headed back into 150ft, played with a couple of grouper, got a small red grouper to the boat and lost/missed a couple of nice hits. We did get this nice 18" trigger to the boat though. Headed north to 120ft to a wreck and jigged for some AJ's. Got just a few small AJ's and a couple more alamcos and two bobos. Headed back into state waters and looked at some stuff on the way in, but didn't get any bites, wound up on the bridge rubble as the last hole, but nothin there. So we headed on in.

Total we wound up with 17 nice mingos, 3 alamacos, 1 trigger, 2 bobos, adn the cobe

8-29 limit of grouper and snapper on Nothin Matters

Captain Jake Adams — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 09:19:58 GMT

We decided we'd done enough worrying and watching the hurricane and realized no matter how much we watched the projected path of Gustav, we had no control over it. It was real nice to take a break, forget about everything for a day and go out fun fishing. The perfect weather, good solunar phase and great crew combined to allow us to have a great trip. We bumped around in 200'-220' for a while and caught 2 real nice red groupers and 5 gags. The gags were a real good grade, with 2 or 3 in the mid 20 lb range. The bite eventually died off al little and we got tired of weeding through snapper so we moved out a little deeper. We proceeded to catch one scamp and snowy after another. The scamp were a good grade and while the snowys were pretty small. Before we knew it, we had our 6 man limit of 30 groupers so we decided to head back into state waters and catch a limit of snappers. This did not take long and we had 12 snapper, most between 18-21". We had a full fish box and the beer was about gone and it was time to head in. We had a great time and ended up with a ton of meat. Can't wait until next time! Here are a few pics:

Post Gustav fishing -- Better but not great

JoeZ — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 15:03:21 GMT

Plan was to head out to some culverts and rubble and check for grouper just inside state waters. Leave by 8 a.m. (I had daycare drop off, couldn't be helped.)

So 9:30 rolls around (I'm on time for nothing these days) and I get the boat in the water but it won't crank up.
Thanks first to Capt. Wes who had a load of clients but was kind enough to kick the boat for good luck and tell me to call Tony Blanton. Wes even called later to make sure I wasn't stranded somewhere. What a swell guy.

Tony walks me through a few scenarios, choke, fuel lines etc. No luck. Thanks for the effort T.

I'm five minutes from giving up and wasting a load of money in the gas, bait and launch fee. Boom, fires up. Why? I don't know but I'm not questioning it.

Not wanting to get too stranded I go to plan B which starts 1 mile out of the Pass and will put me on three spots in less than 60 feet of water and all in cell range.

Forecast was 1-2 with wind light. Not so much.

It wasn't rough but this is a 17-foot boat so the 3 footers had me rethinking things a bit. Screw it, I'm here keep going.

Make the spot and the gps is sucking bad. Bottom machine is marking though so I drop and pull up the first of a few short snapper.

Drop five gets me a keeper which timed the bite perfectly with whatever was taking line from the 8500ss fly lined out the back. Conspiring bastards.

Snapper up and in and on to the spinning rod. Little king (maybe 30 I didn't measure) released boat side.

I've drifted way off the mark and can't find it again so on to Spot 2. Can;'t mark anything.

Spot 3: First drop keeper snapper. I'm outta here.

Make it to the beach a few miles east of the pier and work west hoping to see some action. Pass the pier, pass Chicken Bone Beach, looking like it's head to the house time.

Rev up and jump only to stop a half mile later to chek some random floating crap covered in bait but little else.

See birds bombing in the distance so I'm on them.

One hour, two Gotchas, three pomp jigs (one was a Connor's Jig -- I had nothing left to throw and I hate wasting those) and a Chug Bug later and I'm really tired of the 1,000,000 or so Spanish, ladyfish and bluefish I've hooked, lost, rehooked and landed. Biggest blitz of birds and fish I've seen in a long time.

Smoke break. Oh hi flipper nice to see you ... and you too ... and you. There were about a dozen porpoises (sp?) waiting for a free lunch around the boat. One of the jerks jumps about two feet from the starboard bow, lands on the port side and splashes me enough that he put my cigarette out. I can't make this up, my wife now has the wildlife riding my a** about smoking.

Back to the blitz on the beach for another few throws and I'm tired and headed in.

That's it, that's all I got.

Nipple/Edge/131 this weekend

Kevdog540 — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 20:19:17 GMT

I'm thinking about heading out this weekend. Any repoprts on these areas(Nipple/Edge/131)? I'm fairly new to trolling, and any advice would be great. I've read alot on here that the YoZuri Bonito is the lure of choice, what color for this time of year/or water color? Or is that the wrong lure?

Nice Friday on the Reel Finatical

reelfinatical — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 09:56:17 GMT

8/29/08

Left the dock at 6:30 - 7am with 2 friends, Rob & Elaine.

Bait was scarce in the pass compared to weeks prior. We went to a nearshore rock & got plenty of small to x-large sand perch, lizardfish, and hardtails for live baits.

Headed offshore in mild 1' seas ("speed bumps"). Arrived near the Funnel and trolled the Edge for awhile. We pulled skirted ballyhoo and yozuri bonitos = 0 results. Water was indeed a clear green.

Gave that a rest and came in a few miles shy of the edge to bottom fish. We stayed hooked up the rest of the day! =) Seas had smoothed & the current wasn't bad at all. The flies were out and BITING though!

Scott threw out some fried fish we had leftover from our fish fry in July, lol.. In a matter of seconds we had a dozen Barracuda swarming around the boat. Out came the live baits & cuda tubes. We got to see one entire predator-prey episode right beside us (and I mean RIGHT BELOW US at the waterline of the boat). That was cool to watch!!

Into the evening we caught cudas, some red grouper, gags, mingos, red snapper, triggers, shark (took the entire butterfly jig with him), big remoras, big white snapper, big hardtails.

The surprise of the evening was getting into real "true" bonito! They are a lot of fun, just like the false albacore! I haven't caught a real bonito since leaving NC, so it was a nice treat to end the day. =)

Beautiful sunset on the smooth ride in. Back on the hill at 7:30.

[img]http://www.florida-offshore.com/albums/album02/DSCF2103.sized.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.florida-offshore.com/albums/album02/DSCF2146.sized.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.florida-offshore.com/albums/album02/DSCF2136.sized.jpg[/img]

* I have another pic of a nice snapper but I can't get the right one to post, sorry. I'll keep working on it.. *

[img]http://www.florida-offshore.com/albums/album03/DSCF2147.sized.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.florida-offshore.com/albums/album03/DSCF2159.sized.jpg[/img]

Saturday 8/30

BMH77 — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 12:17:13 GMT

Headed offshore around 8:30 to a spot within state waters with pinfish in the livewell. Fished for about three hours and there were more jellyfish than I have ever seen in my life. You literally had to drop through them to get to the bottom. I ended up catching an Amberjack, a couple of triggers, and red snapper. I think the bite was better than I have seen it in a couple of weeks.

Saturday 8-30-08

Greenjeans — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 09:22:39 GMT

Attached are a few pics from my trip offshore Saturday. Left out about 8 am and didn’t come back in till after 9 pm. Sometimes it’s just nice to be out there on a calm day by yourself. You can clearly see how nice the surface was but the current sure was running underneath. Things kicked up a bit weather wise just after dark. Met a fellow PFF member Gatordoc at the pier on the way in. Nice pics of the Reds by the way..

Got the fish on ice and going to try my hand a cooking up a bit of these chicken dolphin today. When I cleaned them I noticed a small bloodline there. I cut it out but do you really need to on them? Any suggestions on cooking them? Planning on frying half and baking half of the catch.

Friday 8/30

karma — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 09:31:44 GMT

Did an afternoon trip leaving the dock at 3pm heading about 7 miles SE.. Fishing by 4pm.

Upon arrival of the spot I thought I had spotted 2 cobia on the surface by spotting the fins above the water. Threw a live bait on the drift rod and not even a minute later the rod bowed up. I was anticipating my first look at boating my first cobia. Started noticing some head shakes which got me thinking it might be an Amberjack and had some good deep runs on the Penn 8500 with Power Pro. Sure enough it ended up being a 32" amberjack. Good way to start the day.

Decided to anchor up above the structure. Proceeded to catch 18"-21" 6 Red Snapper and 4 Black Snapper on frozen cigs. Lost a nice stud red snapper to our buddy barracudda who was waiting for that easy meal.

The last hour I kept getting worked on this one spot on the boat. Getting wrecked several times. First my Penn 7500 on Power Pro, then switch to my Penn 113H, Nah! K, next best reel.. My TLD 25.. Still got wrecked. I even tried chockin up a few more feet to cheat my way to the surface! Proceeded to run out of good hooks and the sun was setting in the west. Decided to declare defeat on the mystery fish. My guess it was big grouper with about 5 of my hooks in his mouth!!

Time for me to purchase that grouper digger!! Any suggestions on reel and rod?? =)

EDGE TROLLING AND BOTTOM FISHING TRIP 8/28/08

GROUPER321 — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 22:38:18 GMT

GOT A LATE START TO THE TRIP YESTERDAY, WE CAUHT LIVIES AND HEADED OUT TO THE EDGE AND STARTED WAHOO TROLLING, GOT A SHORT STRIKE NOT FIVE MINUTES INTO FISHING ON A BLACK/PURPLE HIGH SPEED LURE, AFTER THAT NOTHING. WE DECIDED TO TRY OUR LUCK ON THE TENACO RIG, GOT THERE AND PROBALLY ABOUT TWENTY BARRACUDA ON TOP HMMM DROPED; FISH ON, PULLED UP A 3LB POUND SNAPPER HEAD. LOST SOME BIG FISH, THEN LOOKED OVER AND SAW A MONSTER SCHOOL OF 20 MAHI AROUND 20 TO 30 POUNDS, MATT CASTED A RUNNER TO HIM INSTANT HIT THE A BARRACUDA TOOK IT OUT OF ITS MOUTH THEY ALL SCATTERED LEFT THERE WENT TO THE CHEVRON RIG AND THE SAME THING. WENT ON INTO STATE WATERS ON A PUBLIC NUMBERS ANCORED UP AND CAUGHT SOME REALLY NICE MINGOS RED SNAPPERS AND BLACKS, OVER ALL IT WAS A GREAT TRIP, THE SEA WAS SLICK AS SNOT ON A DOOR KNOB, KINGS WERE THICK IN 170 FT EVERY WHERE YOU LOOKED . LOST SOME BIG SNAPPER DUE TO OWNER HOOKS PULLING STRAIGHT YEAH THATS RIGHT WE WERE PISSED OFF BUT WE GOT 13 BIG MINGOS 4 REDS A NICE BLACK AND A ROCK BASS SOME SMALL GROUPER, SO NOT A BAD DAY. CAPT. B PRATT/ MATT MILLER THE XO.

Dad's First Red Snapper

Telum Piscis — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 14:04:05 GMT

My dad lives down in south Florida and is boatless down there. So he mostly just wades the flats. He has never been gulf fishing before. And this is the first time he's come up here since I have had the boat. Well, I told him I would get him on some fish. He's not a huge boat guy though. But the seas were forecasted for 1' or less. Turned out that NOAA was right for a change :clap Headed out just a ways out the pass and got to a spot where I usually do well with snapper. It didn't let me down. Started hooking up on snapper right away. But mostly small ones. I have never seen a person get so worked up over small snapper. But he was having a blast. I guess this spearfisherman remembered a little bit of how to fish with a hook and line. :letsdrink Took some work at getting a boat anchored over the spot to fish though. Usually as a diver, we hook into the wreck. That whole system to get anchored over a small spot is work. The current was giving me hell.

We got our 4 keepers in about 1 hour of fishing. Nothing too big, but good eating none the less. Biggest was 22 inches. Also caught two small gags about 18 inches. They went in to grow some more along with all the small snapper. I told them not to leave the spot and grow just a little more, I'll be back.

I was going to move on to another spot to try for some AJ or grouper but dad started to get a little quezy(remember, I said he's not a big boat guy), so we headed in. Short trip, but one he will remember for a lifetime. Back at the ramp at 1:30.

His first Gulf Fish caught.

fishing after the storm

flyguyII — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 16:31:29 GMT

It may be a little insensitive to worry about fishing when peoples lives are at stake but I have a few questions for you long time storm experts. My brother and some friends had planned a vacation to my place in Orange Beach that starts on Tuesday. Of course their tickets are nonrefundable but may be movable pending the storms path ( airlines decide). We were planning to come down any way ( to pull the boat home?). Any way the question is how far to the west would a cat 4/5 storm have to be to allow fishing by us? If it is not safe or not worth fishing the week of the storm and assuming it comes in at New Orleans or further west how soon would you guess the waters would be suitable for fishing. I was around for Katrina but we closed up shop and took the boat home (Atlanta ) for the winter and didn't come back til spring. We normally fish off shore or blue water but the primary goal is action, so reds nearshore or kings are fine too. If it matters the boat is a 27 Worldcat. My guest have called me almost every night and I don't have any answers.Thanks.

8-30 snapper fishing aboard the big john

reelhappy — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 21:33:07 GMT

It was a awesome day to fish. The gulf was flat and the fish were biting. We chartered the Big John out of destin to take us out for a 6 hour cruise. and capt todd allen make it look so easy to put us on the bait and then the fish.

it was my first time on this boat and i can say they did a fine job. his mate chris was one of the best mates that i have had the pleasure of fishing with. there were six of us , four of us work for ati in milton (scot ,chris ,jack , and jay) and then there was jay's girlfriend tanya and a guest from Egypt ( can't spell his name ) he said he loves to fish back home in the red sea! first stop was fuel then fill the bait well which didn't take long.

We trolled to our first snapper stop dragging two yurzzi tremblers. didn't take long for a king to pop the purple one. jay had the pleasure of reeling in his first king mack. and first fish of the day.

ahhh yes it's miller time ! well because fed waters are closed it was a short ride to the first drop zone! but the snapper where hungry and it didn't take long to catch our limit of reds and two lanes and one under size red grouper that went back. everyone had a blast could not have ask for a better day. the gulf was flat and the beer was cold and the fish where biting. just another day in paradise (fl. panhandle)

if everyday was this easy it would be called catching not fishing. our friend from Egypt said he has never caught fish like that before in his life. we didn't even work up a sweat. i would like to thank the capt. and crew of the big john for one of the funniest days on the water i have had in a while. see you all out there. fish on!!!!!!

Nice Cobia

Jarhead — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 21:07:03 GMT

Saw Cobia everywhere yesterday. Caught several but threw most of em' back. Caught this one on a penn 440 with 12 pound test. That was a blast. He went into the fish box.

King Bite?????

Telum Piscis — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 07:11:00 GMT

Well my Dad is coming in town this weekend and I just need to take him out to catch some fish. I am a diver/spearfisher that can hardly ever catch a dagum fish with a hook and line. But the one thing I used to always enjoy was just catching kings in the pass. I used to just troll stretches in and out the pass between the bouy along the drop off in the early morning and catch kings every time.

Are the kings nearshore? I have been out of the fishing scene for so long, I am going to have to re-learn a few of my old techniques. If it's nice, I plan to go out let him play with some reef donkeys. He's mostly an inshore/flats fishing guy from south Florida. So I want to get him offshore some. But the kings were always fun to catch in the pass.

Anyone doing anygood on kings etc... trolling in the pass?

The belated Reel Feisty RFRA report

Stressless — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 20:18:10 GMT

Got the call from James and talked with Hama got it covered so we could go (I was TDY the entire week and was to get back Fri afternoon) fish Sat/Sun work all week then Leave Sat for a month long TDY. CinCHOUSE was not "amused" but signed the kitchen pass. We called a buddy, Jan, another Hawaiian so now we had to double up on bait for lunch and .. well bait. :poke

Some drama getting folks to the boat Fri night/Sat morning but in the end we took off Sat morning in the Reel Feisty with:

[IMG]http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee75/stressless_photo/PFF%20Pics/P8090004.jpg[/IMG]
L->R Jan, James, Chris, Hama

We left the pass just after sunup tried to make bait for a couple mins then RAN to the bait boat. Plan was to hit some grouper around the edge then work the other four species as we could.

Well we hit a couple rocks just past the Mass and I started killing the Scamps on my lure. Chris was using a bit smaller one - different color so after like # 3 or so he broke out the PRO kit.

[IMG]http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee75/stressless_photo/PFF%20Pics/P8090011.jpg[/IMG]

After that we put some more Scamp on ice and Chris got into something a tad larger.

[IMG]http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee75/stressless_photo/PFF%20Pics/P8090020.jpg[/IMG]

Nobody that fished Sat will tell you how great the weather was. Crystal clear skies just a whiff of wind, low humidity and the seas...
Hell they were so nice even James picked up a pole and folks that fished with him know that is not as common as it should be.

[IMG]http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee75/stressless_photo/PFF%20Pics/P8090021.jpg[/IMG]

Well we needed AJ's after a number of grouper were in the box so I let down and worked one onto the hook. Felt kinda smallish but a good kick when I felt a couple good hits? Then the AJ came up without much fight. Well I figured out why he was such a pussy when I got him up... never fear though - I used a dehooker and well, he -was- vented prior to being returned to freedom.

[IMG]http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee75/stressless_photo/PFF%20Pics/P8090023.jpg[/IMG]

We were running further and further offshore (James had said we were only going just long of the edge...) and came up on a bit of stuff floating - tossed and dropped some lures down mine started down and stopped .. took a bit too long to figure out that I should set the hook and had a nice?? but my mind says Wahoo, and the bite marks look to me like a 'hoo's calling card. Middle of the lure - in the belly.

[IMG]http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee75/stressless_photo/PFF%20Pics/P8090022.jpg[/IMG]

We decided to call it a day and ran in with some nice fish but not what we had anticipated. I used my DV card for the first time and got a DV billet on NAS. Very nice - Had beds for all three, me, my aide, and my batman. :bowdown Sorry Hama - Jan (Both retired SOF Military) I had to say it!

Next morning the forcast went kinda South on us and about 15 miles out heading due South we saw a hellofa squall line forming. We slowed down from WARP 4 and kinda looked at it. Saw at least one water spout, getting darker by the second and still 10 miles out... I've seen that line form almost every time I headed out this year and that damn weather poltergeist was not gonna s'cre us nohow. Three SOF guys and two others that have both seen there share - so with a shrug and big ass grin we FLOORED the Reel Feisty and started into it... :baby

[IMG]http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee75/stressless_photo/PFF%20Pics/P8100048.jpg[/IMG]

Once we were about 1 mile out the wind kicked up big with a heck of a washing machine dicing up the seas.. whitecaps everywhere and nothing but foam behind the Feisty that was running like field horse being stung and chased by killer bees. Now it was never really dangerous in that boat - exhilarating - is a good word! Whatever engineer designed it had that sea and weather in mind as we just scooted between a couple water spouts ...

[IMG]http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee75/stressless_photo/PFF%20Pics/P8100053a.jpg[/IMG]

Quite the ride and memory - actually it made the weekend and trip for me.

[IMG]http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee75/stressless_photo/PFF%20Pics/P8100053b.jpg[/IMG]

Once on the other side we could see blue sky and 10 miles past the line we were once again running the Feisty like the biaaatch she is!

[IMG]http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee75/stressless_photo/PFF%20Pics/P8090029.jpg[/IMG]

We tried a couple spots and since we didn't get a good AJ on the previous day we hit some area just South of the Mass and pulled up a couple. Jan had a nice one come unpinned right a the side of the boat - that was the only one we really lost that day. Headed to timber holes on my trusty GPS after that and when we got there -fould out we missed a GPS number by a diget. 350' in the timber holes? Well we headed in and my GPS sh@t all the timber holes numbers I have!! Now Trigger were not coming in:doh and I was the one who said we should go there! Afternoon was on us and the weight-in but we didn't have the fish to compete. Oh-Well, we had a great couple of days and got to catch some nice fish, catch up with friends and take a species count of the endangered ARS while trying to catch TRIGGER!

[IMG]http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee75/stressless_photo/PFF%20Pics/P8100066.jpg[/IMG]

We rounded the sea bouy and tossed some trolling gear over for a king but the sea had turned ugly and was getting worse. With two long days on the water, no real compting catches one would think the crew would down and surly? Take a look at just before pulling in the lines.

[IMG]http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee75/stressless_photo/PFF%20Pics/P8100073.jpg[/IMG]

I guess two days with the brahs can get anyone into a great mood and keep them there....

[IMG]http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee75/stressless_photo/PFF%20Pics/P8100074.jpg[/IMG]

So with it being a looonnnggggg week ago I think we caught Scamp, some nice Lanes, a legal ARS, couple baby ling trying for bait, a Black fin tuna, Chris's first Red Grouper and biggest fish on a jig, a mess of white snapper, and some mingos. Had a ball and didn't get toooo scared skipping between water spouts.

On the way in, like making a 20' putt on the 18th, we just soaked up paradise.

[IMG]http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee75/stressless_photo/PFF%20Pics/P8090033.jpg[/IMG]

:mmmbeer
Stressless

Liberty Ship

Greenjeans — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 20:10:58 GMT

In spite of the rain this morning at 5 am and forecast for possible rougher seas I went out today with a buddy from work in my 20' Mako. Launched at Sherman and was able to find some small LY's and Pin Fish so we were set for live bait. Seas were great, overcast skies were not bad for the heat and it was much calmer than I thought it would be. Headed to a few public sites within state waters and caught a few schoolmasters (i guess AKA white snappers), 1 nice size lane snappper, a remora, and a fish that looked like a dragon (had big wings on each side of his head). I will try to post a pic of this one and maybe some of you guys can help me out on the ID. I have never seen one of them.

Ended our day at the Liberty Ship where we caught several legal red snappers before the saltwater catfish started biting. Smooth ride back in. You never know till you go.:usaflag:usaflag:usaflag

"Nothin Matters" charter Sunday

Matt Mcleod — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 16:53:43 GMT

Had a trip Sunday with a family from Georgia, really nice people and they picked a beautiful day to go fishing. Great weather and lots of action. We had a nice box of black snappers, two nice groupers, a cobia, and a mess of nice mingos. Bite did not seem to be all that great this weekend, had to work hard and be patient.

8-21 grouper

Captain Jake Adams — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 09:28:54 GMT

I had the pleasure of fishing on my friend Sam's boat yesterday and we ventured out looking for grouper. The bite started off a little slow but turned on hot in the middle of the day. We boated a gag and a red grouper on the first couple of spots and hooked about 4 good fish that we decided to let go to catch next time:banghead. We tried to mingo fish some and caught one football but the red snapper were just too thick. After weeding through several 6-10 lb snappers, we went out a little deeper and began to catch snowys and scamps. At the end of the day, we had our 7 man grouper limit made up of: 1 gag, 1 red, 5 snowys and 28 scamp. The snowys were on the small side and the red and gag were average but the scamp were an excellent grade. Here are a few pics:

Here is Quint with a fish other than a mackerel!

Pic back at the dock

The Duke's Humongous Fish

The Duke — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 21:50:56 GMT

On Saturday, 45 miles out, hooked up and landed a 72# Warsaw, my largest griuper of my lifetime. Had fun and was a great catch for our team who were a part of catching this hugh fish. Capt. Rog' on Capt. Delynn's 24 foot Cape Horn-- Ms. Ida --helped put this fish in the boat after putting us on the spot! We were fishing the Capt. Paul Redman's RFRA Tournament. Weighted the fish but it was not a part of the tournament. Took first place in the Red Snapper Division and other species we placed in. It was a great tournament and we all enjoyed. Here are some pics:

More Pics on the Warsaw Grouper caught last Saturday

The Duke — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 00:00:40 GMT

More Pics:

Saturday 09/16 Another bottom trip on RECESS

recess — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 18:21:56 GMT

Well like everyone else we had plans to get in a little blue water fishing in today. Our plans changed from a trip to the spur, and beyond to another bottom trip. We left out of Sherman Cove late due to the weather. Our ride out was not bad with 2-3 seas left over from the cell that had past by in the AM. We started fishing in about 180 ft. on some rocks that we had just found that morning. I think most of the scamp came from that spot, but with Rob aboard we were off to catch a few AJs. Why in the world would anyone want to catch a fish that fights you all the way up to the boat? I dont know! Tim and Rob went down over and over catching AJs and almacos. The seas conditions had 4-5 foot rollers that was very comfortable to fish in. Here is a few pictures of our catch. Hopefully next week (weather permiting) we can get a blue water trip in. Gene,Tim and Rob.

8-16 State waters snapper

markw4321 — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 19:41:04 GMT

Went out after the rain this morning to test out some new electronics. Was by myself and wasn't really thinking about a full day fishing trip. Ended up trying some public numbers SE of pensacola in state waters. Got my limit of red snapper and headed home- relaxed day. wish I had a full crew with me -the snapper were biting. Smalllerfish was 20 inches. Bigger fish was 25 inches. Quality fish for public numbers in state waters this late in the year.

Mark W out

yellow gravel 8/15

sail7seas — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 22:45:50 GMT

my folks took out some friends from huntsville to catch a few fish. my dad hasnt done much offshore fishing the last few years and we can seldom go together having a family business so my fishing partner jason (pelagicone on here) went out with them to help out. they went straight out to the yellow gravel to an area we did pretty good on last sunday as previously posted. they started catching beeliners and white snappers pretty quickly and then chicken dolphin started showing up. they said schools of 50-100 would come through and were there the whole time they were anchored up. jason said he tried to find the bigger ones deeper but no takers. they caught about 15 and decided to let the rest grow up. they did land a nice gag that weighed in at 19 lbs. also had a big fish that they fought for 30-45 minutes before it broke the leader. the seas were real nice the whole day although no wind wore them down with the heat of the day. total for the day 1 nice gag, 1 scamp, 1 AJ, 5 beeliners, 7 white snapper, 15 chicken dolphin.

SNAPPA

Team Triple X — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 22:28:41 GMT

Late report from Sat. Sun. Fished RFRA and took first in grouper 34lbs, but also snagged a beast of a snapper, 28lbs on boga grips. Unfortunately, we had to release him. Outside of nine. Had several nice gags, all over 20, several large blackfin, and one wahoo.

RFRA Offshore Grand Slam Report

Matt Mcleod — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 14:25:28 GMT

I fished the Offshore slam tournament this weekend with Jake, Mark and Luke adams, and my uncle Tony Davis this weekend. The weather was fantastic and we had a great time. The tournament included 5 species: Snapper, Jacks, Kings, Grouper, and Triggerfish. Each species paid 3 places but to win the tournament you had to weigh 1 of all 5 species with your total weight of all 5 fish being the heaviest. We left early Saturday morning with a live well full of good baits and headed to our first spot where we hoped to put a grouper in the boat. We put 4 gags in the box on the first spot, including the biggest of the trip at 32.5 lbs. We hooked two other fish bigger than that one but they got us. We also caught a couple triggerfish at that spot, so we had 2 of the 5.

Next we went Mackerel fishing. Pulled up to the spot and about 6 minutes later had one 45.8 lbs on the deck! So far this trip is going pretty well, now 3 for 5.

We caught a few jacks up to 45 lbs that afternoon but it took us until the next morning to catch the 50 lb fish that we weighed. After that we trucked it on back to state waters, caught a legal snapper and headed to the scales. We won the slam with a total weight of 131.4 lbs, 1st place King, 2nd place grouper, and 3rd place jack. It was a great weekend with friends, can't wait for next year to give it a try again.

I got some pictures for the weekend from Tony who had his camera, but he just sent the ones with me in them, I'll get the others and post sometime.

8-9-8 Yellow Gravel

Ocean Man — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 11:58:44 GMT

Headed out to the Yellow Gravel with a crew of 4-James, Nick, Duayne and myself. We loaded up on Pinfish at the ramp and were in the Gulf by 7:00am. We anchored on our first spot in 220ft of water. We were catching a couple Scamp and some Mingo's but not the football's we were looking for. James added a nice Trigger before the bite quit. We filleted and blackened a few Mingo's for lunch before we pulled up anchor and looked for a new spot. It only took 20-30 minutes of looking to find a new spot in 318-345ft. We anchored up and I dropped down a Gator Jig. First drop Bigeye, second drop another Bigeye.

On my third drop I caught a nice Scamp. Then the bite shut off for the jig and I went back to fishing with natural baits. The bite was pretty good at this new hole, we were putting some more Scamp and Mingo's in the box when a good sized Cow came swimming up to the boat. Duayne dropped a squid down to her and she ate right away. After an awesome Aerial display I sunk the gaff into her.

She weighed 17lb's back at the house, 1lb shy of Duayne's boat record of 18lb's caught late last year. About an hour or so later we had 2 more bigger ones swim up to the boat but couldn't get a hook in them before they swam off. We fished there a little while longer before we moved on to another spot in 230ft. On the way to the last spot we marked up another good looking spot in 300-320ft that we will try next time out. Nothing special at the last stop, a few more Mingo's and I missed a good Grouper bite. We ended the day with 27 Mingo's, 10 Scamp, 1 Mahi, 1 Trigger, 2 Bigeyes and a few White Snapper.

Great Day on the EDGE!!

chaos1 — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 18:52:15 GMT

Like most post's, we headed out around 530am from sherman cove. Bait, beer and the boys were ready for a good day. Went right to the numbers and BAM! the fish were on! AJ's, Grouper and Mingo's abound. Lost a real nice man eater about nine, it was all him, he was kicking the tackles @#$!. BIG shark, don't know what kind, never got a good look at him. We were back at sherman cove by 1:oo and napping by 4:00. Great day on the Gulf!

edge/yellow gravel 8-10-08

sail7seas — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 21:08:10 GMT

left OB around 530 sunday morning. we stopped by the bait boat to get some live cigs. the bait boat was there as usual but nobody home. oh well. we had a mess of pinfish so figured that would have to do. got out to the edge and trolled for a little while. the port rigger got hit and my buddy fights the fish close to the boat. we got a glimpse of it and it was about a 15 lb dolphin. as soon as we saw it he spit the hook. i had a bunch of guys on the boat who rarely saltwater fish and figured they would get bored trolling all day so we went to bottom bumping. anchored up on the edge and immediately started catching monster beeliners. my father-in-law was pulling them up one after the other. we caught a mess of them and moved around the edge a couple times but couldnt get any other species to bite. headed southwest to the yellow gravel and anchored up in 220 ft of water. it was on pretty quick as my father-in-law pulled in this gag that weiged in at 11 lbs.

the scamp started biting and we landed some nice red groupers.

live bait didnt work to well today. most of the scamp and groupers were caught on filets and butterflied baits. didnt have much luck jigging. we got broken off by some big fish. they pulled like grouper but some may have been sharks. we were using 80 lb fluoro, may have to get a little bigger test just to have on hand. there was also a 6-7 foot hammerhead circling the boat that my buddy hooked up to have a little fun on. he fought the fish for about 10 minutes before the leader popped. everyone had a good time and caught some good fish. total for the day was 1 gag grouper, 3 red grouper, 5 scamp and 13 beeliners.

Friday Trip 7/25

boggs187 — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 10:15:25 GMT

Headed out of destin friday morning at about 7 to drop some lines on our coops and after catching bait in the pass we started running, and we were probably about a mile off of the beach and I spotted a big leatherback on the surface so I pulled them back to go look and see if we could get lucky and maybe find a cobia on it and as we a approached it we noticed that it was dead and all of its body parts were missing then all of the sudden a 10ft tigershark came up and just started taking huge bites out of the turtle shell and everything we watched for a minute and then hooked up a few 5lb cobias on light tackle bait rods then another tigershark came up and it was everybit of 20ft long no BS we have a 34ft Venture Center Console and it was over 3/4's of the length of the boat, anyways it also came up to continue eating this turtle, both of the sharks were practically out of the water just destroying the turtle. This was the biggest shark I have ever seen by far and I have seen a 1000lb mako of pensacola cobia fishing once before. Oh yea I forgot to throw in that I had snagged the 10ft shark in the tail with a small cobia rod n reel but a we couldnt stop it on full drag so we just decided to break it off. so we continued to our coop spots in search of some snappers and soon enough when we get there the bite is going off and we limit out in about an hour. It would have been faster but we had to fool some porpoise that were following us. This was a short halfday trip but it was very exciting and fullfilling. Here is a photo of a snapper I caught on my only drop all day, which was pretty sweet. 20lb Red Snapper. I will have more photos and a video of the shark madness later on when my buddy loads it on you tube. :hoppingmad:bowdown

Late post Destin 8/9/08

lobsterman — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 09:26:03 GMT

5 of us went out with the sole purpose of jigging. I wanted to try several different jigging rod/reel combos so I invited some jigging gurus from a jigging forum to see their stuff in action. We stayed bowed up all day and sometimes had 4 and 5 hookups at the same time. It was great. Here is a link to the post and pics at the end.

http://www.360tuna.com/forum/f4/fishing-spineyman-2990/index2.html#post30221

Big Grouper, big snapper and some scamp.

ericholstman — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 20:29:08 GMT

Did some deep bottom fishing today. Caught some live pinfish and menhaden and headed south. Got a few nice grouper(15-25#) and some decent scamp and huge mingos. Also caught a few big snapper which were properly released after I cleaned a few leaders and hooks out of their mouths. Pretty slow overall and worked for what we got. What a beautiful day out there!! Here's some photos.

a promise

pacsman — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 21:20:59 GMT

Made a promise to my son that I would let everyone know about his first wahoo. Trusted NOAA and went to the Edge Saturday. Lines in the water at 730. Snake King by 800. Had a king or a hoo sky on a bait around 830.
930 had a good run on the wayback. My boy Fought the fish for about 15 or 20 minutes on the spinning outfit before Conkle put the gaff in him. Needless to say we were pumped when we saw the stripes on the Hoo at the side of the boat and even more pumped when He hit the ice. He measured out at 46 inches. We didnt have a scale.....not real sure on the weight. We were guessing between 30 and 35. We trolled a little longer and decided to head north with the wind shifting out of the south. Stopped at a snapper spot inside 9 miles and got 3 between 18 and 20 inches. We also picked up 2 more kings. What a day! Stopped at the pump on the way home and only burned 20 gals. That was the icing on the cake.
Cant wait for the next chance to get out of the box.

Dave
hope that I didnt mess up the pictures. will try again tomorrow if I did.

Saturday 08/09 another bottom day on RECESS

recess — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 19:03:27 GMT

We left Sherman Cove around 6 oclock to head somewere to the SW. The seas were 1 to 2 from the north that made for a nice ride out, Hall and Rob jumped into the bean bags. But about 15 miles out the sea conditions went to 2 to 3 and still building so we decided the way the weather has been in the last couple of weeks we would stop short of the steps. On spot it seem that all we could catch was red snapper. The groupers did a job job hiding from us all day. But the scamp were more then willing to come home with us for dinner. A few mingos and a stop inshore for a few red snappers, One tile fish from 360 foot. Man the new lacanus jigs work great in deep water but you need to change the hook size. The water was the cleanest we've seen in a long time.Maybe next week we will be hopefully, doing what we like best .Blue water. Maybe its not to late to salvage the season. Gene Tim Rob and Hall. TEAM RECESS

8-7 State Water Snapper and Bay Grouper

dpewitt — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 13:55:05 GMT

Fished with Capt Matt McCleod last week and had a great time. We got some bay groupers (too small to keep) and broke off a few more then went offshore 4 to 5 miles and loaded up a 6 person limit of snapper. Probably caught about 20 snapper and 4 grouper plus a small king. Lost of a lot of good fish from breaking off. I'll be back down in October for a few days with him again and I would highly recommend Matt to anyone of this forum. Great guy and he really knows his stuff.

Trigger, snapper, Pics 8-9

Fifty-Fifty_2 — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 12:00:09 GMT

:clap

Tuna fishing

Kevdog540 — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 20:16:18 GMT

I know nothing about tuna fishing and would like to learn. Where do i start? Can you guys help? What time of day, tackle, bait, anything will greatly appreciated. I will be fishing out of Orange Beach, AL.Thanks

A trip on John's boat to the edge

ShurKetch — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 10:33:11 GMT

Everyone showed up at the marina about 0500 and launched the boat at about 0530. Visited the "bait boat" for some cigs and headed to the edge. We had decided this was to be a Mingo trip and luckily it turned out to be a good one. The Fishing Machine (Jay) was on and we lost count of how many he caught. Didn't take long to limit out so we tried some live cigs for Grouper, but too many sharks. We kept losing hooks and line and decided we had all of the fish we needed...........It was only about 1100. With South winds and small seas we returned at 30+ mph.

Coast Guard to the Rescue

Grassflatsfisher — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 23:43:26 GMT

A buddy of mine sent this link to me. It's to a fishing forum on the West Coast.

The story is unbelievable. They have pics to prove it happened. That would be one long long day on the water. Good learning experience just in case you ever get caught in a similar situation.

http://www.bloodydecks.com/forums/offshore-reports-southern-california-usa/112995-senor-hefe.html