Fish Story for November 28, 2014

Shawno

Well Known Member
My wife Tina spent Thanksgiving with her family in Minnesota. I didn’t have a fishing partner, so I took a new guy I met in MX named Mark out on my 24’ Wellcraft named “Murphy Girl”. We launched at 7 am and proceeded to catch Pacific Mackerel in 35 feet of water not far from the harbor. We only managed to catch about 16 of them before heading south to the deep reefs, the same spot where we caught Black Tip Sharks on 8 November. As soon as we arrived at the spot, we caught a few Leopard Grouper at 10 to 15 pounds each before I hooked up with a really big fish. It had to be at least 100 pounds and I held on for dear life as it quickly stripped line from my reel. I figured it had to be another Black Tip Shark and expected it wouldn’t be long before it cut my line with its teeth or raspy skin. After about 30 minutes of straining to raise the fish, it slowly came into view. First white, then black, and then lots of bubbles just before the huge fish popped to the surface. It was a huge Black Sea Bass. It took all my strength to pull it over the gunnel and lift it for photos. We measured it at 59” length and 43” girth.

Mark and I fished some more and caught a few more Leopard Grouper, but also started losing fish that broke our lines in the rocks. I decided to up the ante by switching from 100 to 200 pound leaders and that really made a big difference. I soon hooked another huge fish that felt just as big. It thought that it had to be another Black Sea Bass, but I could feel that it was stuck in the rocks. I gave the fish slack to see if it would swim out of the cave and tried some hard jerks to get it mad. It took a while, but eventually I could feel the fish had slid out from the rocks and was starting to pull like crazy. After a 20 minute tug-of-war, the fish started to come into view, but this time it was brown. It was a huge Gulf Grouper, possibly the biggest that I had seen. We measured it at 59” length and 40” girth.

Another drop and Mark pulled up a huge Leopard Grouper at about 25 pounds, definitely one of the largest I have seen. We measured it at 36” length and 23” girth. I hooked up next with another huge fish. This one stripped more line than all the others combined. It definitely felt stronger than any other fish I’ve caught. After about 15 minutes, I hadn’t gained any line and Mark asked me how I was doing. I told him that my back was starting to cramp and asked him if he wanted to pull on it for a while. Mark took over the battle and slowly started to gain some line while I shot video. After another 15 minutes the fish slowly started to come into view with a huge cloud of bubbles before popping to the surface. It was a giant Black Sea Bass, by far the largest one I have seen. I guessed it about 300 pounds and floating belly up near the boat. I wanted to release the fish, so I emptied my pockets, jumped in to the cold water and swam over to the fish. I turned it right side up and pushed it a few feet under the surface until it started to swim on its own. I climbed back in the boat and Mark and I celebrated our release of the magnificent fish.

The bite turned off around 1 pm, just before low tide. We kept fishing until we ran out of Mackerel around 2 pm before returning to the marina. Later, we weighed the small Black Sea Bass at 135 pounds and the Gulf Grouper at 95 pounds. We ended up with 8 nice Leopard Grouper. It was another unbelievable day out on the Sea of Cortez.20141128_122700.jpg 20141128_110841.jpg 20141128_121957.jpg 20141128_122836.jpg 20141128_122838.jpg 20141128_LeopardGrouper1.jpg 20141128_95#GulfGrouper.jpg 20141128_135#BSB.jpg 20141128_300#BSB.jpg 20141128_122827.jpg
 

Kelney

Well Known Member
Great job! My back hurts just looking at those fish you boated let alone the BSB you released. Commendable effort on working to release the big BSB.
 

dmcauley

Well Known Member
Great job Shawno, we released a big black out there last year also, too old to eat but not to procreate
 

Parrothead Pescador

Active Member
Mercy Shawno!!! You guys had another Epic trip on the incredible Sea of Cortez. God Bless you for resuscitating that ancient BSB. I'm sure the fish Gods are smiling and will look favorably upon you on future trips. Great Karma - I wanna be with you! Great report & pics. Thanks!
 
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