July is here in all it’s glory. I sure am glad that the maintenance cycle is over (for now), and we can concentrate on chasing the fish around! You have no idea how badly I missed getting on the water. I am happy to report that … other than the captain’s windshield wiper on the Woody Too, and the GPS is acting funny on the Lil Woody (grrr), that all systems are go, and I am 100 percent fishable!
So let’s fish! Good quality time with my dear wife. 4th of July weekend hit and Saturday and Sunday were Blue Bird perfect days, but Monday we were on Tropical Storm Warnings! 😦 Which translates to Offshore Saturday, Reef Sunday, Storm Monday. As Glen said, at least you have a plan for each day!
Off we went, boat full of gas, we had caught fresh ballyhoo, so out to the edge of the earth our destination. The water was flat – and was full of birds, weed lines, bottlenose dolphin everywhere and …. NO FISH! Got some good photos and videos – but honestly we started worrying about dinner!
We fished way outside the wall 1500 – 2800 feet. Since the action was slow, I pulled out my old Sam Scott rod and my Waldo inheritance 9/0 reel and put a big planer down rigged with a pink and white Hawaiian eye tipped with a whole ballyhoo. The rig was the ticket, we did not catch anything on it, but it got hit a few time, and brought the school of dolphin up to the surface, and we got a nice Bull to save the day!
Speaking of dinner, robin made a wonderful Mahi and Fruit dish that will blow your mind!
Sunday – Reef day
Pinfish traps were disappointing – we got 4 live baits when Looe and I checked the night before. So I made a deal with Robin that I would go catch bait at the crack of dawn, and then we would go out and hit the reef. Off Looe and I went at sunrise, and sabiki’s in hand we made light work of baitfishing, and got about 4 dozen pinfish and grunts … perfect snapper candy. We also got a half dozen big pins and grunts for grouper.
I went home loaded up the Woody Too and Robin and I headed out. We went to the edge of the reef, found good shows of fish on the sonar at 75 feet, dropped anchor and chum. No current! None – seriously none!. We caught a couple small yellowtail but nothing! Anchor up, next spot and same result. Crap!
We moved on down the reef to a spot we call the Mushroom. Same MO – cruise the structure, find the best fish show, drop anchor and hook up. Chum down, baits in … hit … we started catching some small fish, at least we found something. Then boom – Robin’s rod bends in half, Black grouper! Right after that, same tune on my rod – limit done.
We limited out at 12:00 – we called it our day and headed home. Boat and fish cleaned and in the pool by 2:00. Not too shabby!
Check out these monstera – they are taking over! Love the feature, kinda like a plant cave!
Robin turned that grouper into a Pecan Crusted masterpiece that blew us away!
Next on deck Tropical Storm Elsa. Weather channel talked of doom and destruction. Once again we were in the cone, and this time we could not shake it. So Monday became hurricane prep day, and we did it in style, with ribs on the smoker. They were awesome!
Elsa came and went. Weather channel reporters packed up and left. Ended up being a small blow lots of rain, but an overall good drill. Always happy when the water stays IN the canal and not under the house!
Through the week, I put the challenge out that we needed to do something different and celebrate all this beautiful fish. Robin answered with a Spanish Fish Chowder/Stew. Shrimp and huge hunks of grouper with chorizo in a tomato based broth – wow!
This past weekend the weather was a bit stormy so we were not sure if we could get out or not. We really wanted to do the night bite for Mangrove Snapper, but it was way too unstable to try going out in the dark – especially with the new moon. We finally made the call to hit the reef Sunday during the day, and Looe and I went and got bait lined up.
I planned the day to be a 1 stop day – meaning I was only going to throw the anchor once, and see what we come up with. We went to a rockpile off the Maryland Shoal, and anchored right on top of the fish show in 28 feet of water. Chum in … NO CURRENT! …. This is starting to get frustrating! We did attract small yellowtail – that Robin messed with all day. But also hit a bunch of Strawberry Grouper, and we put a pretty big one in the cooler. Robin got some fairly nice yellowtail, and the largest joined the grouper in the cooler.
Part of the fun .. I guess .. we were watching storms to the east and west of us, but they pretty much left us alone. Out of the blue, a cell build up and got us dead center with a good fresh water rinsing. No lightening, but a bit of wind and a lot of rain!
I got picked up by something big freelining a pinfish, and it broke off after running around the boat a couple times. Shark? Sure seemed like one, but it did not cut the line … I pushed it too hard and the line broke. A half hour later I got picked up again – same M.O. – ran around the boat, took me under the engine, but this time I eased up on it and played it out. Boom – nice Mutton Snapper under the boat!
We called that a day and came on back. Robin treated again … yellowtail sushimi and Carribean Mutton Snapper curry! Delicious!!!!
We may get one more trip next weekend to round out the month. If so I will post an update. If not, I will get back on the blog after our RV trip to Kentucky and the Mid-West.
Later – Bo
Gorham Fishing Team 