# Chicken Dolphin, AJs, Scamp, Triggers, Shark ~ RF 3/10/09



## reelfinatical (Sep 30, 2007)

Today was AWESOME AWESOME offshore!!!!!!!!! (except for the 6 miles of thick fog going out& coming in off the beach)... .....~ I am BEAT! 

Spineyman, we putthose Barefoot rods to the test today! We LOVE them, thanks for the suggestions!!

*EDITING-INthe Details below::::* 

Left Joes Bayou in thick fog...cleared out under the Bridge, but was thick again for about 6 miles out thru the Gulf. After that, it was sunny skies all day long offshore. 

JOES:









JOES:









GULF NEARSHORE:









GULF OFFSHORE: 









The Gulf was full of "life" today. Man o wars, turtles, weeds scattered about, some of the smallest flying fish I have ever seen! It's nice to see things starting back up out there!! 

We started off fishing a wreck in >215', dropping down 240g Katana jigs from BluewaterJigs.com for several hours. Today was the first day of using our new 4' 10" Barefoot rods as well, & wow they make a difference in jigging!! 

This wreck was loaded with AJs. One after the other, no monsters but legal sizes were to be had. We didn't keep any though. Scott had a few AJs on & then their bodies would get crashed by sharks. Reel in the line and only a head was on the hooks. (Videos 1 & 2)











FIRST FIGHT OF THE DAY:









FIRST FISH OF THE DAY:









JIGGING VIDEO #1:





JIGGING VIDEO #2:





We move on to another spot not too far away. We set up to do some bottom bumping. A few minutes into it, Scott yells "THERES A DOLPHIN...<stutter>..<stutter>..NOT FLIPPER, A MAHI!" Sure enough I look over and a 10-15LB Bull went by & we went into a frenzy looking for something quick to throw to it, but it would not take anything. It was pretty heartbreaking, lol.

We gave up and went back to putting lead to the bottom. Up came some pretty 18-20" scamps & 15" Triggers off cut baits.. THEN, Scott jigged some more at this spot & caught a 4-5' shark (video 3). THEN, the chicken dolphins made an appearance & we had an absolute FIELD DAY with them. =D

VIDEO #3 - SHARK!!  --
































We pulled anchor around 4:45 and headed back to the hill where that darn fog met us again, just as thick as it was this morning. We slowly felt our way thru the Inlet & made it home at 6:15.


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## lobsterman (Sep 30, 2007)

That is awesome, glad you spanked them with your new jigging rods.


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## Splittine (Nov 24, 2007)

Sweet cant wait for the report.


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## cuzmondo (Oct 1, 2007)

Whogoes fishing on a beautiful Tuesday with calm seas and sunshine? I always thought weekend days with 20 - 30 kt. winds, thunderstorms and lots of boats made for the best fishing:banghead:banghead:banghead:banghead

Glad you got out and had a good time, can't wait to see the pics!!:clap:clap


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## reelfinatical (Sep 30, 2007)

ADDED -> Report, Pics, & Videos (very amateur editing, lol)... Enjoy.


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## Fiver (Nov 6, 2008)

Thanks for the report!! Looks like a fun day on the water..


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## lobsterman (Sep 30, 2007)

RF, you went off and left me home dreaming about fishing.


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## NaClH2O (Feb 14, 2008)

Nice job Amanda, looks like yall had a great day. Its great to here the bait is starting to show back up. It will not be long and it will be game on again.


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## reelhappy (Oct 31, 2007)

awesome job! some of the best fishing is on forggy days. just got to go slow.


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## 69Viking (Oct 30, 2008)

Great day of fishing! I have this job thing that won't let me get out during the week so you are very lucky! BTW, Video 1 & 2 say they are unavailable when I click on them but Video 3 worked fine. Don't be surprised if I ask you some Jigging questions when we meet at Hooter's on March 18th for the Cobia Seminar!


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## Island24 (May 12, 2008)

What did you throw at the dolphin?


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## lobsterman (Sep 30, 2007)

Ah come on now 69Viking, work is for people who don't fish. No just kidding, I would rather fish during the week also, less fiasco on the water.


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## reelfinatical (Sep 30, 2007)

> *Island24 (3/11/2009)*What did you throw at the dolphin?


 For thebull: we threw dead cigar minnows, tuna feathers, jets,poppers, spoons, jigs..whatever we could get our hands on quickly at the time... we kept chunking baits to keepit around,it took us awhile to grab some rods & tie stuff on & change out a few times, &it didn't stickaround too longand/or just didnt wantanything we gave it yesterday-For the chickens/peanuts: we threw kastmasters & shiny small jigs to them... we also tied on tiny hooks with tiny pieces of bait & dropped them down in the column to where they were... also had dead cigar minnows just sitting out..


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## reelfinatical (Sep 30, 2007)

> *69Viking (3/11/2009)* Don't be surprised if I ask you some Jigging questions when we meet at Hooter's on March 18th for the Cobia Seminar!


 you would probably have better luck asking Lobsterman... lol~~>I don't know much more than the "basics" =P


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## Ocean Man (Sep 27, 2007)

Good report, looks like you had a great time.


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## fishwagon (Oct 23, 2008)

some may not believe but the my 2 favorite baits for schools off chicken dolphins are mcdonald straws w/ a treble at the end like a sow rig, & small pieces of a old dingy hand towel ran in the chum bucket both baits are almost indestructible an will usually produce the same results as cut bait of small jigs.


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## AquaSport175 (Oct 15, 2007)

:bowdown:bowdown:bowdown:bowdown



Great report! Now if I wasn't stuck behind a desk today.........


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## recess (Oct 8, 2007)

Great job Amanda and crew , looks like a pompano dolphin, a rare catch for sure. cant wait till next time its almost here. What was the water temp around the dolphin if you dont mind? 

TIM


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## reelfinatical (Sep 30, 2007)

^ mid68s & 69 at onepoint.I sent somepics of the dolphinafew minutes agoto the researchfolks with CSS where we do our tagging thru- maybe the sighting will help them somehow. I read on their site thatthey (pomp dolphin) are a "mystery"


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## bombtosser (Oct 5, 2007)

awesomecatch, how did the water color look?


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## reelfinatical (Sep 30, 2007)

Ithad aclean bluish color. When the prop wash was kicked up (wording, lol)it was so pretty.


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## reelfinatical (Sep 30, 2007)

_Here's the email response I just got back - if anyone else catches chickens in the Gulf, I guess inspect them well -You could alsohave a Pompano D..  It was a surprise to me FOR SURE!!Take a second to note the following so you can report them to CSS if you want totoo.  (the pompano dolphin id'er can be found on their website)_

Amanda,

Congratulations!!! Yes they are pompano dolphin. 

I have a series of questions.

First I would like to get the GPS position of where you caught the fish.

How many of the fish do you suspect that may have been pompano dolphin?

Did you get a measurement on the pompanos?

I would like to get hi-rez files on the two photos that you sent.

You can tag pompano dolphin also.

Thank you for taking the time to report these fish. Very few people ever identify these fish. This is good information for science.

Good fishing,

Don

Donald L. Hammond

Marine Fisheries Biologist

Cooperative Sciences Services, LLC

961 Anchor Rd.

Charleston, SC 29412-4902

(843) 795-7524

[email protected]

www.dolphintagging.com


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## bcn31 (May 22, 2008)

Thats great that yall had a good day. Thanks for the awesome report.


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## parrothead (Oct 1, 2007)

Great report !!!!!!!!!! Thanks for posting. Fog in the morning,fog in the evening.Gotta love it.

Scott


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## recess (Oct 8, 2007)

Yes Ma"am pompano dolphin are alive and well when you find one you usallyfind many in the school definalty next time stick a tag in one cause not much is known about migration patterns Just from what i have heard and read about them is they dont go very far at all .


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## Sailor50 (Nov 8, 2007)

Appreciate the report, very interesting.Looks like one of those days you dont forget.


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## GONU (Oct 3, 2007)

Amanda, as always great report that's how your supposed to spend a week day. Did you all catch anything trolling?


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## reelfinatical (Sep 30, 2007)

> *GONU (3/11/2009)*Amanda, as always great report that's how your supposed to spend a week day. Did you all catch anything trolling?


 Thanks everyone. No, we didn't get anything trolling. Weput 2lines out when we first got there (in 1 of thepics above) but nothing -we didn't trollall that long.


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## DAWGONIT (Jan 16, 2009)

Thanks for the report, pics, & videos.

Evan.


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## Halfmoon (Oct 3, 2007)

Thanks you two, for a great report and videos. :clap


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