Count The Species! 3-10-18

Left Swoopes @ 6:30am along with my fishing bud Robbie. We were originally supposed to have 4 anglers, but 2 opted out at the last minute...their loss...lol.
Wind was very light out of the East with the water temp a chilly 59. Clearing the inlet, the waves were around 2 feet with a long 13 sec period. Even better than forecast, so off to the great blue yonder we headed.
Dropped anchor at the north end of Half North about 26 miles out in 88 ft of water. Beautiful 15 ft drop- off at that spot with the Lowrance lit up with bottom and bait fish. Water temp out there was 71F.
We immediately started catching fish using cut bait and squid. First over the rail and into the box was a nice Lane Snapper. I also had a dozen small finger mullet aboard, which also caught some fish, but at a no better rate than the dead bait we used.
We had alot of fun catching 6 or 7 large Alamaco Jacks one after another. I broke out a 2 ounce vertical jig and caught a couple on that rig along with a bonito. The different species, kept coming over the railing at a steady rate....Red Snapper, Lane Snapper, Seabass, Vermillion Snapper, Bonito, Bluefish, Grunts (of course) Triggerfish, Mango Snapper (21 incher...yumm) Alamico Jacks, Sharks, and one 27 inch Cobia that Robbie nabbed off the bottom on cut bait.
We lost 4 or 5 fish that took our baits and simply could not be turned. I know that a few were large sharks, but one or two fought like monster ARS, or maybe Amberjacks. I would guess that we lost a combined 12-15 hooks due to break offs or gut hooked ARS. By the way we caught at least 30 of those endangered ARS, all different sizes 12-33 inches.
After the ARS decided to take over the show, and with the wind and waves picking up, we pulled anchor and moved inshore to Inside Eleven.
Not as much relief here, but still a nice 6-8 ft roll. Funny, but at this spot only 6 miles from Half North, the wind was dead calm. (At HN the wind was 10-15 when we left)
We stayed here for only an hour or so, because the fishing was somewhat slow. However, I did catch 2 of the largest ARS, I've ever gotten. Both were 32-33 inches and 20+ lbs. I thought that both of them were sharks at the time I hooked up, as both swam down and away from the boat. Man, those big ARS can really give you a workout. After the 2nd one, I screamed "no mas" and called it a day.
The wind had really picked up again, so about 1:15pm, we hoisted anchor and headed in.
Although we only kept 3 fish, it was still a really great day. Absolutely non-stop action.
Hey, a quick shout out to Mike Mkyota, who was somewhere out close by and also catching fish. We talked several times via radio, swapping reports. I look forward to reading your report Mike.
Thanks for reading. Tight lines folks.

 

Thanks for the comments guys. Bob's right, the weather forecast for next week Fri-Tues. looks great. 1-2ft on some days, 2-3 on others. I'm trying to finagle my way into an extra day or two off work...or maybe I'll just play hooky. If I have some extra room on the boat I will post under the fishing trips/fishing buddies section. Tight lines guys.

 

Hey Rich, I like smaller Amberjacks and smoked Kings are great, but Alamaco's are not my cup of tea. We were cutting them up and using them for strip baits. Those and the bonito were really bringing the fish to the boat. Nice and bloody!
Of course, they also were bring the sharks in.