Sun June 5th – Dave and I made our first trip to Lobos at 5 am that morning. We found Arturo the boat launcher in the morning and had no problems at all getting the boat in the water. We stopped at the first point for bait and found huge schools of 2 foot long Mexican Barracudas that were eager to bite our sabiki rigs. We caught a few and put them in the live well to use for grouper bait. After catching grunts and spotted bay bass for bait we headed straight for the “Glory Hole” reef that Doug and Scott love to fish. We tried 16i oz diamond jigs, scampis and live bait, but the nothing seemed to be working. Throughout the day we tried all kinds of bait and lures at all of the known reefs that we had, but the fishing was slow. It was all new to me and a bit frustrating not knowing what we were doing wrong. For the day we caught an assortment of gold spotted bass, large spotted bay bass and a few Colorado Snapper, plus Dave caught one small Hammerhead Shark. Overall the day was a disappointment with no grouper or yellowtail, but we did see a large sailfish working the surface, a first for me.Mon June 6th – My buddy Aaronn Mattingly drove down from Phoenix on Sunday night. On Monday morning we drove down to Lobos and met up with Ted Miller to talk fishing again. Ted gave me a few more pointers, which made everything a lot easier. He said that he uses only 8 oz chrome diamond jigs to catch almost anything. This was an important key since I had tried identical 16 oz jigs the day before without any luck. He also said that Gulf Grouper were being caught using only spotted bay bass for bait, the largest ones that we could find. He said the leopard grouper were being caught on humps and long edges of the major reefs. I decided that I would stick with Ted’s advice with hopes of better luck. We stopped to catch bait in 60 to 70 feet of water, including a few extra large ones on 8 oz diamond jigs, before heading to the 18 mile reef, about 3 miles north from the launch in 140 feet of water. The drift was from west to east, directly towards shore. Aaronn caught the first Leopard Grouper and we caught a mixture of Colorado Snapper and Gold Spotted Bass while drifting up slope using our diamond jigs. After a couple hours we headed a couple miles north to the Glory Hole in 100 feet of water. We continued to drift across a 10 foot ledge and caught a few more snapper and bass before the drift started changing to the north at about 11:30 am and the bite turned red hot. I didn’t know it at the time, but it was low tide. Aaronn and I were hooking up with big fish, losing them, hooking up again right away and then getting broken off. It was as if a superhighway of fish was directly below the boat. The small treble hooks on our jigs were too small to set up in the mouths of large fish and were either pulling free or bending straight. We were using a 50 pound fluorocarbon top shot on 80 pound braid main line, but the fish were eating our jigs like popcorn. We did manage to land a couple nice 15 pound leopard grouper before one of our big baits got hammered. I yelled to Aaronn to grab the rod and start reeling. He did his best, but the big fish was quickly stripping line and headed for the rocky caves. I tightened up the drag as much as I could, and Aaronn slowly started to gain some line as the rod doubled over. I knew it had to be a big fish and I cheered Aaronn on and got the gaff ready. After a hard battle, a fat Gulf Grouper came into view. I gaffed it and Aaronn and I worked together to get it into the boat. Wow, what a relief for me to finally get a nice Gulf Grouper in the boat. It was Aaronn’s first big fish on a trip that we had been trying to arrange for several years. It was very rewarding for me. We lifted the big fish with a scale and saw it was a 70 pounder. The largest Gulf Grouper caught on my boat to date. Aaronn struggled to lift the fish and pose for photos before we put it on ice and tried for another. Within minutes after our next drift, another one of our big baits got hit hard and it was my turn to battle. The fish kept stripping line from the reel no matter how hard I tried to stop it and soon it was rocked up. I was determined not to lose this fish, so carefully planned out what to do. At the advice of Rick Hammer, I had previously made special rigs out of coin sinkers with nails pounded through them and both ends sharpened. Aaronn found the rigs in my bag and carefully backed the boat up directly over the fish. I slid the “Hammer Rig” down the line and then asked Aaronn to take the boat out to deeper water. It seemed that nothing was going to work, so after a while I donned a glove, wrapped up the line and started pulling with the intention of breaking either the 150 pound braid main line or 200 pound leader. Breaking such heavy line with your hands is quite difficult, so I was pulling with all my might when I felt a head shake. The fish was fighting at the end of the line as I pulled it free of the cave. This time the fight was on for good as I quickly gained line on a huge fish. When it finally came to view, we saw that it was a little longer than Aaronn’s grouper, but not quite as fat. It a
lso weighed 70 pounds and was the second largest Gulf Grouper I have ever caught. I was stoked and couldn’t be happier. We tried a few more dr
ifts, but low tide had passed and the bite was cold. We decided to make it a short day and returned to Rocky Point to show off our prize catch.