10/31 Report
Decided at 8am to fish today since weather not looking great for the weekend. Since late decision and not sure of the bait situation I went solo with worst case using yesterdays fresh.
Knew fishing time was limited due to school droppoff at 8:45 and pickup at 2:30. Got to off the Hook to cancel Friday order and picked up more fresh . Even though chuck offered a spot close(thanks) I ventured off to a spot that i did well at last year. Set up around 30' water 61.5 degrees and no marks at 10. Gave it till 11:30 when water started to get muddy patches and moved eastward closer to canal entrance.
Cruised past a few spots nothing on FF to continued till i saw some scatched in ugly dirty water. Threw the hook at 12 and changed baits as they got dirty fast. at 12:30 decided to pack it in and take the skunk 2 days in a row. Get starboard rodrigger rod in and the starboard corner rod with a half of small bunker starts paying out. Of course its the lightes outfit i had out-(and cheapist) a 12-25 ugly stick with a shimano tekota 500 with 30 lb PP.
I set hook and fish charges to port side up & out against the tide-striper run for sure. Move remaining 2 rods to rocket launcher while playing the fish. Comes to surface and Im thinking this is a nice fishy as he takes off . Got him back 2 more times but the runs were shorter. At this point decided netting was out of the ? so l grabbed my mini T Gaff-like a tuna hook which happened to be rite where I was fighting the fish,dropped the rod while holding the leader and tried to carefully slip the gaff hook in the gill area. As I lifted it in I felt the weight and thought this was a nice fish-especially when it thumped on the deck.. Since I nicked a gill with the hook I decided to keep the fish-thats my self imposed bonus(large) fish for the year for me -of course unless a 60 comes my way.
Its 12:30 & I called it a day. Get boat cleaned up by 2 ,since couple of people at dock thought it might be a mid thirties lb fish I decided to go to Off teh Hook to get it weighed.
Weighed in at 42.9 lbs, my second heaviest ever. Then Mike(Mark) at Off The Hook told me about the bounty. What a bonus for the day. Thanks Off The Hook Ill pick it up Monday as I couldnt wait had to get to the school by 2:30 and its now 2:21.
Pictures on the off The Hook Bounty Thread_Have to get a copy .
When I cleaned the fish later it had the following in its gut
1 fresh whole bunker
3 partially digested smaller fish-not distinguishable to me size of small bunker
1 spider crab
Probably 39 lber on an empty stomach.
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I love those short trips. Again, Congrats partner.
