Air Temp: 70-82
Water Temp: 74
Depth: 10-35 feet
Water Clarity: very clear
Winds: 10 -15 mph
Bait: live shrimp, live caught bait fish and cracked blue crabs
We had two beautiful days on the water and winds were calmer than expected early in the day on Sunday, so we were able to make it out to the North Jetty on both days. Both sides of the jetty were fishable on Saturday, but Sunday was too rough for us on the channel side out near the end of the jetty. With the rough seas and huge wakes from some of the ships, I was hoping the few boats on the channel side would not have an anchor slip because they would have been on the rocks in no time flat since the tide and current was pulling them directly to the jetty.
My daughter has learned to catch small bait fish when the action is slow to increase our odds of catching something big and her plan worked well. She asked to be rigged up with a single drop, small hook and small piece of cut bait. She pulled about an 8 inch croaker from the rocks and we tossed him out behind the boat with a small egg sinker to give him plenty of opportunity to swim. I would toss him directly behind the boat and away from the rocks and he would slowly make his way back to the rocks for saftey from predator fish. Well, it didn't take long for the croaker to attract a nice Cobia (45 inches and 32 pounds) caught by my friend Alan. It was a good fight to watch and ended with the fish landed in a few minutes. We were only planning to catch and release, so the boat next to us had also caught a Cobia, so we added to their catch.
My daughter has learned to catch small bait fish when the action is slow to increase our odds of catching something big and her plan worked well. She asked to be rigged up with a single drop, small hook and small piece of cut bait. She pulled about an 8 inch croaker from the rocks and we tossed him out behind the boat with a small egg sinker to give him plenty of opportunity to swim. I would toss him directly behind the boat and away from the rocks and he would slowly make his way back to the rocks for saftey from predator fish. Well, it didn't take long for the croaker to attract a nice Cobia (45 inches and 32 pounds) caught by my friend Alan. It was a good fight to watch and ended with the fish landed in a few minutes. We were only planning to catch and release, so the boat next to us had also caught a Cobia, so we added to their catch.
The fishing was good, but no big black drum again. We tried near the boat cut for about 30-45 minutes without a single bite, but did donate an anchor to one of ship wrecks (I guess) marked on my GPS about 75 yards off the rocks. We caught croakers, whiting, sand trout, sheepshead, a few small sharks, Spanish mackerel, a stingray on an artifical (my first) and had two small reels start singing with whatever was hooked headed to the open Gulf. We tried to pull the anchor and chase one down before my daughter's small spinning reel was spooled, but the line broke just as we started the chase. My guess would be shark or jack fish on one and possibly a large sting ray on the other. That's the stuff that keeps you coming back.
