# 4-20-08 Bottom Bumping



## Ocean Man (Sep 27, 2007)

Igot a call from my Uncle James on Friday to tell me the seas for Sunday was calling for 1-2ft so we started planning our first Gulf trip in 3 months. We met up at my house around 5:00am, loaded the boat and headedto Navy Point. The ramp was pretty full but there was still a spot or 2 left after we parked. We headed straight to the edge to see if we couldn't get a Grouper or some Triggers before we worked our way back to State Waters. The Mingo's were pretty fired up at first so we started filling the box with them. We also caught some nice Red Snapper at the edge but they had to go back.:doh The Edge bite died down a little and we needed some more color in the box so we moved in a little shallower on some natural bottom to try our luck on the Triggers. It didn't take too long before James starts putting some Triggers in the box:hungry Duayne drops down a butterflied bait and is rewarded with a Red Grouper.










It was about 1/2 inch too short so it had to go back.:boo I dropped down a jig after he caught the Grouper and was quickly hooked up to an AJ.



















It was well short but still fun to catch and I could have caught as many as I wanted, every time I dropped the jig I was hooked up to another. We all started working on the Triggers for a little while untill a small weed line passed by the boat. It was holding a school of Chicken Dolphin, they weren't very hungry but we managed to get 2 of them in the boat. After playing with them for a while I dropped down a butterflied White Trout I got a nice hit right away but came up empty on the hook set. I sent another one right back down and this time the hook found its mark-right in the corner of a fat 12lb Red Groupers mouth.:letsparty


















We tried for some more Grouper with no luck so we ran into state waters and got a quick limit of Red Snapper. Nothing big most about 18 inches. There was still a good bit of time left in the day so we decided to head back in and hit the bay for a while. The ride back in was brutal. The West wind kick up hard and the chop beat us to death on the way in. Once we made it to the bay we tried to catch some pinfish for bait. Wecouldn't catch any pinfish or any other live bait but we did catch 3 Spade fish and this little guy.



















I believe it to be a Cowfish but I haven't taken the time to look it up. Pretty neat little guy. We eventually gave up on finding live bait and anchored up on the hole with a few fiddlers I had left over from last week and some dead bait. I caught a Sheephead on my first drop, a Mangrove on my second drop and a big White Snapper on my third drop.









I had no idea those guys got that big in the bay, we usually don't catch them that big unless we are at the Yellow Gravel. The bite quit after that and we were all pretty tired at that point so we headed for the house. Before we left I dumped all the fish on the deck for a quick pic.









Final Tally: 22 Mingo's, 6 Red Snapper, 1 Mangrove, 5 White Snapper, 10 Triggerfish, 1 Red Grouper, 2 Chicken Dolphin, 3 Spadefish and 1 Sheephead.

All in all we couldn't have asked for a better day. We really expected the bite to be off since we were fishing the day during a full moon but it didn't seem to effect the bite this time.


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## JoeZ (Sep 30, 2007)

Damn!


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## JoeZ (Sep 30, 2007)

Damn!


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## Heller High Water (Nov 1, 2007)

Nice work awesome stack of fish!


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## reelfinatical (Sep 30, 2007)

Very nice. :clap


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## bluffman2 (Nov 22, 2007)

MAN nice job there.......


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## Get'n Wade (Oct 28, 2007)

Nice mess of fish right there!:clap


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## LITECATCH (Oct 2, 2007)

good box of fish!!


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## Gonnamissher (Oct 1, 2007)

Nice job Man. Only thing we did Sunday was burn gas. :banghead


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## brnbser (Oct 1, 2007)

nice day and yes that's a cowfish


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## Coryphaena (Oct 2, 2007)

Awesome, Matt! The deck of your boatnever fails to lookgreat stacked up with fish. You are always on the mark with those red grouper..... :bowdown:bowdown


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## Murphy's Law (Sep 27, 2007)

Nice mess of fish Matt :clap


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## wanabe fishing (Sep 28, 2007)

Looks like y'all made up some for the 3 months off. Good job, Mat.


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## wirenut (Sep 30, 2007)

Helluva mess there:clap:clap:clap


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## Dylan (Apr 15, 2008)

Great report and awesome catch!


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## outdrsmn (Dec 13, 2007)

:banghead:banghead:banghead

You post ist the first one that acutally make me miss P-cola. After Turkey season is over I'm looking to come your way so clear your schedule OR you can just send the fish to me and save me a trip.


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## Ocean Man (Sep 27, 2007)

Milton, just let me know when you are coming and I will clear my schedule.

How's the Turkey season treating you up there?


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## Fish Happens (Oct 21, 2007)

Nice Red Grouper and nice mess of fish you have there! Congrats on dinner


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## outdrsmn (Dec 13, 2007)

I will be sure to let you know what's happening.

The Turkeys are already "hen-d up" so it's kinda tough unless you want to kill a Jake. The best thing is, we can hunt all day so you can catch-em coming back to the roost. Took the wife and got to hear about 8 on the roost and see the Jakes come in...plus a water moccasin within spitting range (was a good laugh).


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## how2fish (Jan 21, 2008)

Great report ! I have a question about spade fish , are they good to eat..I've just never caught any before and how do you cook them, fry, grill, smokeect..thanks !


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## Telum Pisces (Sep 27, 2007)

> *how2fish (4/25/2008)*Great report ! I have a question about spade fish , are they good to eat..I've just never caught any before and how do you cook them, fry, grill, smokeect..thanks !


Great to eat. Get a big one and there's enough meat on there. They are a little bit different with their bone structure, but the meat on them is nice and white. If I am down on a wreck and don't see anything else worth shooting, I pick me out a few nice big spades and bring home the meat. Spades are on most every wreck that I dive and there's a billion of them out there. Spades have a very small mouth and make it hard to catch and target them per se with rod and reel.

Matt, it never ceases to amaze me at how you bring back so many fish everytime. I am going to have to buddy boat out with you sometime.oke


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## how2fish (Jan 21, 2008)

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR><TD class=SmallTxt width="80%"><DIV id=_ctl1_ctlTopic_ctlPanelBar_ctlTopicsRepeater__ctl21_smAuthorName_SimpleMenuDivLayer onmouseover="InstantASP_OpenMenuMouseOver('_ctl1_ctlTopic_ctlPanelBar_ctlTopicsRepeater__ctl21_smAuthorName','_ctl1_ctlTopic_ctlPanelBar_ctlTopicsRepeater__ctl21_smAuthorName_SimpleMenuDivLayer','<table width=100% class=PanelBar_OuterTable cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0><tr><td><table width=100% cellspacing=1 cellpadding=7><tr><td class=TableCell_Light>View Member\'s Profile</tr><tr><td class=TableCell_Light>Add to Buddy List</tr><tr><td class=TableCell_Light><a href=__doPostBack(\'butSendPrivateMessage\',\'10\'); onmouseover=\'window.status=window.location;return true;\'; onmouseout=window.status=\'\';return true; Class=\'SmlLinks\' Title=\'Send Private Message\'>Send Private Message</a></tr><tr><td class=TableCell_Light><a href=__doPostBack(\'butSendEmail\',\'10\'); onmouseover=\'window.status=window.location;return true;\'; onmouseout=window.status=\'\';return true; Class=\'SmlLinks\' Title=\'Send Email To Member\'>Send Email To Member</a></tr><tr><td class=TableCell_Light><a href=__doPostBack(\'butShowMemberPosts\',\'10\'); onmouseover=\'window.status=window.location;return true;\'; onmouseout=window.status=\'\';return true; Class=\'SmlLinks\' Title=\'Find All Member\s Posts\'>Find All Member\'s Posts</a></tr></td></tr></table></td></tr></table>','165px');" style="DISPLAY: inline" onclick="InstantASP_OpenMenu('_ctl1_ctlTopic_ctlPanelBar_ctlTopicsRepeater__ctl21_smAuthorName','_ctl1_ctlTopic_ctlPanelBar_ctlTopicsRepeater__ctl21_smAuthorName_SimpleMenuDivLayer','<table width=100% class=PanelBar_OuterTable cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0><tr><td><table width=100% cellspacing=1 cellpadding=7><tr><td class=TableCell_Light>View Member\'s Profile</tr><tr><td class=TableCell_Light>Add to Buddy List</tr><tr><td class=TableCell_Light><a href=__doPostBack(\'butSendPrivateMessage\',\'10\'); onmouseover=\'window.status=window.location;return true;\'; onmouseout=window.status=\'\';return true; Class=\'SmlLinks\' Title=\'Send Private Message\'>Send Private Message</a></tr><tr><td class=TableCell_Light><a href=__doPostBack(\'butSendEmail\',\'10\'); onmouseover=\'window.status=window.location;return true;\'; onmouseout=window.status=\'\';return true; Class=\'SmlLinks\' Title=\'Send Email To Member\'>Send Email To Member</a></tr><tr><td class=TableCell_Light><a href=__doPostBack(\'butShowMemberPosts\',\'10\'); onmouseover=\'window.status=window.location;return true;\'; onmouseout=window.status=\'\';return true; Class=\'SmlLinks\' Title=\'Find All Member\s Posts\'>Find All Member\'s Posts</a></tr></td></tr></table></td></tr></table>','165px');">Knot a Yacht</DIV></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>Thanks !! I've seen spadefish on wrecks before but never knew they were good eating!


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## Halfmoon (Oct 3, 2007)

Holy crap! When is the fish fry???

Nice Matt


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## reelhappy (Oct 31, 2007)

now thats a boat load! way to go.


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