This is a pretty bad day of the week for Jack to fish on, but we decided we would take a chance and see what we could find in 4-5 hrs. That's not much time, but........ who knows.
(Photo: boys sleeping on the drive out)8:30 Out of the driveway
9:00 Bait & Ice - done, launch off the docks. See a manatee right off the back-end of the boat. I'm so glad our motor was off!
9:30 Clear the Port and I drive until Jack gets done playing w/ the GPS & our first coordinates that he made, then lost, then found again.
10:30 21Fathom (F) ridge: natural ridge - 25 mi due east of the Port. Didn't hit clean, blue water until 20 mi., nor any flying fish until then. I love flying fish! I never tire of seeing them take off and smack back into the water a hundred of feet later.
The current was "doable", not as slow as we'd like, but not ripping fast, so we drift fish (no anchor). Jack and I drop our big bottom poles with a nice sardine (double-hooked). I hooked up first. About the time I see shark (or maybe about the time the shark sees me), he gives a big head shake and breaks the line. Part of me doesn't care about the line breaking, but I hate that I lost a brand new 6 oz sinker (lead) to the bottom.
The shark will spit the hook in a couple days. We reset up for a 2nd drift and Jack's busy driving, my pole doesn't have hooks on it, so I get to use Jack's pole this go-around. Wham, the bite feels a little different than a shark but sheesh....... it is a shark. He decides to do this nice little aerobatic jump for the camera. Jack takes him off.11:45am: We leave the sharks after listening to our Fishing Friends on the radio say they too have been skunked on 21F ridge that morning. We decided to drive back towards Pelican Flats (nice 85 ft grassy underwater shoal in the middle of nowhere).
12:15 pm: Can't really find any great spot to anchor, so we anchored over nothing but sent down a yucky chum block - sometimes referred to as a calling card. (see pic) The scent is suppose to drive them crazy. Ahhhh, it is really slow waiting for somebody to jump on your hook.1pm: Jack catches a nice shark (same age & type as before) on Matthew's pole. Meanwhile, I'm getting nibbles on the big bottom pole. Eventually, I get something (??) strange but instantly gone. I reel up to see what's left....... no hooks, but the shark was gracious enough to not eat the sinker (lead) too. The big guy went straight from my squid to Jack's squid about 6 ft away and proceeds to eat his hooks, also leaving the sinker. Must have been a BIG guy since he razored through 50 lb line like butta.
In the picture, there is a red anchor ball. I'm including this to give you a visual of what it does. You simply hook it around your anchor line, drive directly parallel with where you anchor is locked down on the bottom, then the anchor ball is driven down by the water to the bottom by the anchor. It's upward pressure ends up lifting the anchor out of the sand, dirt or rocks. Once the anchor is free, it floats to the top with the anchor ball. Fabulous invention which saves many muscles from having to pull that stubborn anchor.Hmmmm?
Jack topped the boat out at 37 mph with our 225 hp Mercury engine. He was pretty happy to verify that with the GPS.Most of everything is still on the boat, so we will make a turn-around trip back to our Ol' Fishing Hole - "Snap 176" and see what we can get there. It may be only small snapper or a variety of reef fish, but we're hoping to get something besides sharks there.
We are hoping that by the time we return from vacation, the sharks will have migrated away from our area. (One can only hope!)
Hope to have a more fishy report tomorrow night!
Robin
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