Took advantage of a nice weather window this past Wed. and Thurs. for two days of fishing. The weather was hot, but it did rain on Tues. night in Penasco. Seas were calm after the storm Wed. morning.
Ran about a mile off the Mirador and loaded up the bait tank with bonefish, sierra, a few corvina, and some sand bass, and then headed out to the 18 mile reef. Passed some nice sargasso patches on the way out and decided to troll a couple small lures. Picked up a small skipjack, but no other takers.
1st drop on the 18 resulted in a 65 lb. grouper. We followed that up with a couple breakoffs on even larger fish, and eventually put 3 very nice (35 lb.) white seabass in the fishbox. The live bonefish were the hot ticket yet again. Didn't get a bump on the sand bass at all.
We now have a new fishing saying: "My boner is starting to twitch!" :lol::lol: Seriously - when fishing with Spectra line, it transmits everything on the bottom so well. You can tell if the bottom is soft or rock, just by the feel of your weight bouncing on it. When you drop a live bonefish down there, he sort of just swims around - you don't feel much of anything. Then, when somebody starts eyeing him over as a snack, you can feel the bonefish start twitching at the end of the leader like it's having an epileptic seizure. Time to hang on to that rod because within seconds of feeling the twitch, you get slammed to the rail!
With some nice fish in the box, we decided to head south and try trolling. Located some nice weedlines with big sargasso paddies and instantly got hook-ups on dorado, but couldn't make them stay on the hook. We made a few runs over the same group of paddies, but had the same result each time - good strikes, but couldn't keep the fish on the hooks when they jumped out of the water. They weren't big dorado and may not have been taking the whole hook, but it's always fun seeing dorado go airborne off the back of the boat. Oh, we did have one sailfish jumping near us, but couldn't seem to get him interested in anything.
Finally, we headed back in about 3:30. Heard a distress call on the radio. Somebody out of Cholla was about 10 miles out and his motor just quit. Got his GPS numbers and went north, then towed him back into Cholla Bay. Took awhile to go that 10 miles at 7 mph, but at least everybody was safe.
Thursday, we started off trolling weedlines south of Penasco, but got no action. Headed down to the Caballo to find four pangas set up there. I set up on my mark, right near the northern edge of the reef. Didn't take long for the "boner to twitch," only to end up breaking the main line. Next attempt resulted in getting rocked and shredding a 200 lb. leader. 3rd fish on mauled the hell out of a live corvina, but didn't stay on the hook. Just that kind of a day, I guess. We headed back up to the harbor with the wind starting to build a bit at 3:30.
Two decent days on the water, a lot of BIG fish out there right now. Be prepared with the heaviest gear you've got and even that isn't going to always get them into the boat!
Ran about a mile off the Mirador and loaded up the bait tank with bonefish, sierra, a few corvina, and some sand bass, and then headed out to the 18 mile reef. Passed some nice sargasso patches on the way out and decided to troll a couple small lures. Picked up a small skipjack, but no other takers.
1st drop on the 18 resulted in a 65 lb. grouper. We followed that up with a couple breakoffs on even larger fish, and eventually put 3 very nice (35 lb.) white seabass in the fishbox. The live bonefish were the hot ticket yet again. Didn't get a bump on the sand bass at all.
We now have a new fishing saying: "My boner is starting to twitch!" :lol::lol: Seriously - when fishing with Spectra line, it transmits everything on the bottom so well. You can tell if the bottom is soft or rock, just by the feel of your weight bouncing on it. When you drop a live bonefish down there, he sort of just swims around - you don't feel much of anything. Then, when somebody starts eyeing him over as a snack, you can feel the bonefish start twitching at the end of the leader like it's having an epileptic seizure. Time to hang on to that rod because within seconds of feeling the twitch, you get slammed to the rail!
With some nice fish in the box, we decided to head south and try trolling. Located some nice weedlines with big sargasso paddies and instantly got hook-ups on dorado, but couldn't make them stay on the hook. We made a few runs over the same group of paddies, but had the same result each time - good strikes, but couldn't keep the fish on the hooks when they jumped out of the water. They weren't big dorado and may not have been taking the whole hook, but it's always fun seeing dorado go airborne off the back of the boat. Oh, we did have one sailfish jumping near us, but couldn't seem to get him interested in anything.
Finally, we headed back in about 3:30. Heard a distress call on the radio. Somebody out of Cholla was about 10 miles out and his motor just quit. Got his GPS numbers and went north, then towed him back into Cholla Bay. Took awhile to go that 10 miles at 7 mph, but at least everybody was safe.
Thursday, we started off trolling weedlines south of Penasco, but got no action. Headed down to the Caballo to find four pangas set up there. I set up on my mark, right near the northern edge of the reef. Didn't take long for the "boner to twitch," only to end up breaking the main line. Next attempt resulted in getting rocked and shredding a 200 lb. leader. 3rd fish on mauled the hell out of a live corvina, but didn't stay on the hook. Just that kind of a day, I guess. We headed back up to the harbor with the wind starting to build a bit at 3:30.
Two decent days on the water, a lot of BIG fish out there right now. Be prepared with the heaviest gear you've got and even that isn't going to always get them into the boat!
