# Problem solving and the tale of the almaco jack



## terpdoc (Jan 8, 2012)

...


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## terpdoc (Jan 8, 2012)

It was dealer's choice when I woke up today :thumbup: Was torn between pompano fishing vs. black snapper vs. kings. I had heard that GSP was killing some pomps and Navarre was kinging it along with some mahi but it had been too long since I had been to Pcola pier...

My only mission today was to catch a pomp. Got to pier about 7:30 a.m. and by 9:30 had 1 keeper pomp (sand flea ) and 2 nice greys (live shrimp). (One other guy pulled another pomp up a bit later). I was tired of tooling around with the reds that would not eat so I headed down to the end. 

Problem 1 and the almaco: Big remora wish fish under it. Remora always takes first shot at bait. Fish under it was a too narrow of a profile to be a ling. He only took one swing at a dead cig and spit. I tried tossing a free bait to free the pair but the remora proved his greed. 

Solution: I hung the darned thing so someone could throw on it the other fish. A good fisherman and my friend D (ID'd the fish: Nice sized Almaco Jack) pulled out a magical live candy-sized hard tail and tossed it- when the jack saw the frisky bait the pair was no more and for a second there was bliss and pure laughter of joy among us all. The Jack boomeranged for the horizon unfortunately to the demise of the fishing line behind him that wrapped around the corner of the pier 

My adventures continued to the base where, due to my lofty goal of pomp catching, I was missing out on boat snapper fishing. I knew alpha pier held some nice snapper at the end and even in the shallows at times...
Problem 2: no access to end of pier only to side wall. Solution: I took 2 long sruf rods and put 3 oz sinkers 40 lbs flouro and circle hook. Bait: dead cigs. I launched the baits near the piles a long ways down. We had 3 snapper hookups all three landed- all keepers 19", 18", 17" :yes:

{Of note we also got picked up by grouper 4x. We had 2 hookups and 1 landed. Both grouper in lower 20" range on shimano stradic 4000, 10 lbs PP slick 8 braid, 15 lbs flouro and bullminnow. The grouper caught was a joint effort between the wife and I. We were lucky only that we only had to wait 15 mins before it came out of his hole to be pulled up after initial hookup}


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## ThaFish (Feb 27, 2013)

Man I swear you kill it every time you go out! Nice haul today man.


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## penn 10/0 (Apr 7, 2011)

Great job buddy, you do tear 'em up every time it seems like.


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## TailRazor (Apr 25, 2011)

He's wearing a Salt Life shirt, would you expect anything less?


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## okiman (Jul 26, 2013)

Terpdoc, hay man do you know if the NAS Pier is going to be open this weekend by chance?

Nice fish!


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## Coin_Guy (Apr 1, 2013)

Nice catch wish I could catch something like that.


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## cobe killer (Apr 13, 2008)

sounds like an adventures day of fun fishing to me with some fun problems to have.


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## terpdoc (Jan 8, 2012)

okiman said:


> Terpdoc, hay man do you know if the NAS Pier is going to be open this weekend by chance?
> 
> Nice fish!


Sorry Okiman, there is no sure way to tell if it will be open really. There is also bad weather coming this wknd so I have no diea how that affects eveything.


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## Dylan (Apr 15, 2008)

Right on with the snaps and groupers!! I had a good laugh and a cold beer after the Alamaco!!


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## FreeDiver (Jun 12, 2013)

i hung the almaco on a live hard tail....


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## FreeDiver (Jun 12, 2013)

when he can off that remora he blew up that hard tail.i free spooled to let him eat and set the hook nice and deep. dumped me on the west end and 2 people wouldn't get out of the way in time for my to lift around the piling.he was hooked on a king leader on my vs100 american rod smith redfish elite rod. he was every bit of 12-15lbs. dylan was the one yelling the loudest along with mick when he was choking that hardy down!


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## lastcast (Oct 12, 2007)

You saw and ID'd an Almaco off the pier?


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## FreeDiver (Jun 12, 2013)

i ID'd that fish as he swallowed my bait and went side ways!


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## lastcast (Oct 12, 2007)

He was waaay lost then! Must have been blown in with this storm!


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## FreeDiver (Jun 12, 2013)

ive seen a few before but not legal. it would be the same as seeing black fins, sailfish, mahi, and the most recent thrill from my kayak buddy a wahoo. but i do consider that moment of him eating a hard tail on light tackle one of my top ten sights fishing. wish i had the room to walk him over and lay the wood!


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## phantomcc (May 25, 2010)

I have a question, is an Almaco the same as an Ambereen (spelling local name)


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## FreeDiver (Jun 12, 2013)

phantomcc said:


> I have a question, is an Almaco the same as an Ambereen (spelling local name)


what your thinking of is the banded rudder fish. there very common to close structure including piers. some people mistake them from baby amberjacks or even lesser amberjacks, although they dont taste to much different. almaco has a very distictive darkness to the back, dorsal and more stalkier as well and in my opinion better table fare.


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