| About 10:00 or so, the water started to slicken up a little. Didn't take long to realize that we were in the wrong place. Cranked up and headed for the rigs. A little over halfway out, we seen the water looking a little different. At first we thought it was current change, but as we got closer, we saw that it was a school of jacks. We were caught a little off-guard, so we started rigging up for them, but they didn't want anything we offered. We let them go and headed towards the rigs again. About a half-mile from the rig, we found blue-water and a big sea-turtle with what looked to me like a ling swimming under him. Jeff, a buddy of mine who was with us, threw a piece of shad at it. The ling came for it, but so did the turtle. He got the line out of the water and we took a few pics and went on. |
| We got close to the rig and started drifting. Doug set out the 6/0 hoping to score a big shark. We set rods out everywhere with dead and live bait, Drifting and on bottom. It didn't take too awefully long for a small bull red to hit my shad. He was about 29 to 30 inches and had a small bite taken out of him, (maybe we should have used him for bait). We took a picture and let him go. |
| We drifted a little longer with little action then went back and tied off to the rig. Not long after we tied, I had a hit on another shad. Fought it for a few minutes and had a break-off. Missed a few more and then it was Dougs turn for action. He was throwing a rattle trap around the rig and, BAM, He had a fish on, but it spit the hook. We were all a little excited to see that. The very next cast he hit again. The fight was on. His rod was doubled over, and drag was being pulled like there was no tomorrow, but Doug stayed with it and got it in the boat. Turned out to be a 31 inch ling. If you've caught a ling, you know its no joke on light tackle. We took a picture and sent him on his way. |
| Not long after that, Doug switched to a tandem speck rig (Black and gray), and hooked up again. He broke off after a few minutes, probably a jack, but we'll never know. After digging around in my tackle box, I came across some Black and Gray Assassins. I put one on and started throwing. A few minutes later something hit my line that I had in the rod holder with a live finger mullet on it. It almost took my rod with it. That was a miss. I was just glad to see my rod still in the boat. I was still throwing the Assassin when I looked down to see a school of huge jacks, although we had been seeing them all day, these were monsters. I was starting to tell Doug and jeff to look at this set of them and I saw what had to be the Father of all of them, heading for my jig. OH YEAH, HE HIT IT HARD!!!! The fight was on for about 15 minutes, but felt like an hour. He finally got me in the rig and broke me off. Man what a fight. It was a monster. Jeff was playing with sheephead around the rig leg and caught one for the box, to keep the Gafftop company. We decided we were tired and headed in. Not a lot of fish in the boat, but Excellent trip. Doug gave me a little too much money at the end for gas and bait, so the next one is on me. Total count landed - 1 gafftop, 1 ling, 1 small bull red, about 3 hardheads and 1 sheephead. Like I said, not a lot in the boat, but with the hook ups, crossing into blue water, seeing the turtle and the ling, It was a great trip for me. |