June was an extremely busy month for me…just incredibly windy. We found our days to go offshore but they were much less common than the last few years and we spent many a day near the beach. The good news is, for the most part, that the fishing was not only good offshore (jacks and mahi) but very good inshore with great redfishing in much of June and excellent sheepshead fishing to go along with it.
Sean has been fishing with me forever – with his mom, friends, sister – always brings great people with him. This trip he brought his buddy Corbin, who i haven’t seen for a couple of years, who was about to go off to boot camp. We wanted to catch mahi on spinning, drum on topwaters and jackson topwaters. We had good weather for all and we accomplished all three over 3 days. First day it was the dolphin – we picked away at them throwing poppers as trolling was so freaking easy it wasnt fun. Hits every 2-3 mins – but when they are scattered they can be tough to bring to the boat. Corbin also pulled a cobia out of the mix with his lightening reflexes. Day 2 – drum. It took a bit but we got on a great school and we wacked some upper slot fish with skitterwalks and 7″ bass assassins that sean walked across the surface – awesome fun. Day 3 – JAcks. We found ’em and we got ’em. We did loss a lot, hooked (and lost) a couple of dolphin in the fray – the only thing that ended our fun was a thunderstorm…but we cant have awesome conditions forever! Always great to see you guys!
Good day with regular Jason and his two bro-in-laws. He ended up heading out to look for a few jacks, among other stuff. The jack bite was on and we managed good numbers on jigs and poppers. We also boated some nice flounder, seabass and a couple gags. Not a bad bag. When the jacks were really fired up and his bros tired from fighting theirs, Jason grabbed the 12wt (he does a lot of fly fishing) and hooked up within seconds. The only problem was that his fish was big – almost too big. The fight was very long, too much for the rod
Ken with his cobia – we caught several “rats” today while looking for a big one. We found the big one and hooked it (prolly went 60lbs?) and promptly pulled the hooks THREE TIMES. After we gave up on her we got into a great flounder bite.
HAd a great couple of WINDY days with two of my favorite clients – Dave and Beth and their crazy boys. I didnt take a lot of photos for some reason but we managed a good morning with the drum (Despite the insane heat) and also had a good time with the boys catching bonnethead sharks and a bunch of spanish and blues. I even let drew drive the boat – he was a very good captain.
Dave with a nice multi-spot drum.
Rich and I had a great morning – it was calm and we found a BIG school of reds pushing bait on the falling tide. We had a bunch of blow-ups on topwater and we finally cam tight, landing several really nice fish. After that we went and hit the sheepshead – landing several in the 2-5lb range and breaking off a couple of beasts. All catch and release today – always a good way to be! Great fishing with ya!
Had regulars Ed and John – unfortunately they did not have their regular luck with good weather and were being paid back for their amazing albie fishing last october and their 3 straight slick calms last august. We barely had a window to get out day 1 but we managed to find some jacks breaking of several before Ed landed his – spent the rest of the time inshroe dealing with extreme wind and extreme heat. Tough conditions but we made the best of what we were given.
Today was all about David – he wanted to catch something big and he really wanted to catch a dolphin. We stayed nearshore due to time restraints but we found a great Jack bite and he flat out outfished the entire boat catching and landing several jacks on poppers to his pop’s 0 (sorry dad!). Right before we were about to pull them in and a nice little bull dolphin streaked by – we wrapped him up in no time! Great day with great weather.
Jason and I ran out on a slick day looking to bust a few things on the fly – we found a nice gaffer dolphin just a couple miles from the inlet. Two casts – fish on and a great aerial battle! After that is was on to the jacks – it was a bit tougher today. We chummed them up no problem but had to work for our bites and lost a handful before….i hooked a nice cobia on the teaser popper. We lost him boat-side. Oh well – right after that J got his jack on the fly and it was a haus!
