2003 Fishing Reports

1/6/03 Was invited to join Lob Bad English and Divin Fool to go for lobsters and was successful at putting me on them but as a rookie with only 13 dives under my belt missed a few but Bad English took up where I left off. I did manage to get one nice size bug

Note to self: Clean off the lens of the camera prior to photo taking.

3/13 Went out with KP, Surveyor, and Adamk in KP's boat and headed for some spots for diving. First place I directed them to dickey boy with bad vis but did see some flounder and one grouper hiding in the mass of bait. Nothing to report but 64º down there in 80' with 5-7' vis and lots of junk to dive around. The next stop was nice vis up to 20' and managed a keeper. 5.2#s That was it for me but a few mangrove snapper and red grouper were brought up by the others.

4/3 went out of the Port with JohnB,Surveyor, Marlin44. I have been doing a lil fishing instead of diving but here goes.  Ran to Damocles and baited up. Headed out to Cones and did some drops. Not much happening there for us. Headed in to City Services and played with the AJ's up to 60 pounds. Could not get the bait past these guys (again). Headed over to a few other spots and finished the day out on Titan bottom fishing. Surveyor did a fine job putting a 30 pound grouper in the cooler. We caught a bunch of short snappers, triggers, and other stuff. Called it a day and came in. We saw a weedline, but we did not find anything on it. Water looked pretty crappy (green vs. black last week) for Mahi, so we only fished if for about 10 min. Water is green and gross all the way to about 145 feet. Current was light, and seas where flat. Starting to see flying fish and other promising stuff again.

4/5 Went to the pc circus this morning and bypassed the staging area and proceeded to the ramp. Got to the ramp and didn't see Bigworm or his buddy yet so continued into the water and asked this couple to hold my boat. Got parked and on the water idling around till I saw/heard them. Got underway and headed for bait at Domiciles and funny, no one here yet? Dropped the sabikis down and up comes the cigar minnows, threadfins, and sardines. Headed to City Service tanks for some aj rastlin. Got our arms and backs warmed up and headed to some Titan debris and right off the bat Bigworm is bowed up. He hollers its a gag before it shows his head and landed this guy.

8/12 Went out of Sebastian Inlet for a lil diving with Apex Predator and a non forum member for a lil bug hunt. It was one of the best days offshore for me in a long time
First stop was an old place I used to fish in 80'. The water sure looked green and poor vis from the top so let Apex drop down and look see. He was hollering about how the 71 degree water was not comfortable with him. I said all you have to do is take just a few minutes to take a look see and after several minutes he did and said come on in, its clear after 40'. Over I go and sure enough, got thru the mess and it looked like I was coming in for a landing into some canyons! The vis on the bottom seemed endless! 100' easy and bottom was 52 degrees. Don't know what happened to Apex but searched around and found a 4.5# bug and lots of prize fish. I never seen vis that good ever but Im a newbie to this.
I hope I get that spear gun for my birthday! Since we had 2 tanks each 38 and 39% nitrox we were forced to go shallow next dive but the vis was poor at the bottom 10' vis and all I saw was leg parts in 60'. With the we had on the first dive I was surprised to see so many ledges in one area and that is just the tip of that iceberg. Tried fishing, got bait and drowned them to lockjaw fish. Was greeted by FWC and was kinda embarrassed to have only one bug to show them.

8/28 Went out of PC to 3' bumpy ride out. Stopped at #4 and #2 bouys for hardtails, sardines, and cigars. Took an hour to get to the 21f area. Did some passes and found some schooling fish so we anchored up. First fish was Mr. Daves with a short red snapper. Then Huntnfeesh hooked up to this monster 18#

Needless to say that was about it for the day due to a storm coming from the south. Too late, We got soaked and beat but not too bad a day.

9/25 took Nick and Jparker out for some deep digging with some electric rigs supplied by Newie. Conditions weren't so favorable for a fast run out. First drop was in 180' but nothing home but an easy winding to the top! Headed out to the snowy white area and saw a weed patch in 375' and decided to stop for a few and see if anyone was home. Bingo! Jparker had popped his mahi catching cherry with a 17# dolphin.

Then it was action all day on that weedpatch! We let a few small ones go but decided they were bigger than keeper trout so we fished till we got our limit of 30 and headed back in around 2:30 for a smooth 32 mph ride in. I have plenty of mahi for the bash and the freezer. Lots of photos wee taken with Nicks camera so will wait on him for them.

11/26 Went out this morning out of PC, grabbed a few baits off the sub wreck, went to the Carol Lee and donated some lead there. Went out to the 21F north and made some "friends" with some guys out there, after getting cussed out (we were only trying to find out if you had some Grey Poupon ), moved out to the 27F north. They were chewing real good out there, many freighttrains, JohnB had one pull the 6500B right out of the reel mount on the rod (thats a first). Put a 7 pound Mahi (2 hookup, one fish method Sailcat Tony on the other end), and a 15 pound grouper in the box. Went out and dinked around on the cones some, came back in and finished the day on the 21F south of the weather bouy, and got freight trained some more on penn 6/0 w/ 150 pound power pro. Alot of short and half snappers today, cudas cut a couple of nice fish up for us. Water looks good from the 21F on out. Looked better/bluer south of the WB vs north. The winter time pattern is in full swing, grouper on the 21 now, so we should be able to get them off the shallower stuff after the next front .
JohnB and a 15# warsaw grouper

12/9 Went back out for more of the same. We took JohnB's boat this time and tried Vera Cruz and foung tons of bait traving around and followed the birds to find them. nothing biting at vc so went straight out to 27f N. On the way we saw a shrimp boat anchored so dropped a bait and ReefRomper brings up a bonito. We get to the 27 and right off we catch a few scamps and red snapper. Then we went to hummingbird for a few shots at it and one bigger scamp is brought up by JohnB and one red snapper for Jim Carl. Seas were not bad in the morning but got real sloppy in the afternoon.

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