After a healthy 3.5 mile run in the morning, we spent Tuesday back on the bayside looking for lobsters. Filled up the boat with gas earlier in the day in anticipation of calmer winds on Wednesday for a possible offshore fishing journey. $4.95 a gallon for gas at the marina, yikes! The winds were blowing pretty good the first half of the day which made conditions pretty tough, but we found some nice spots later in the day and were able to manage 9 keepers. Winds laid down and the water cleared up nicely in the afternoon.
Woke up real early on Wednesday due to the anticipation of getting offshore. Seem to always wake up real early, can remember doing the same when we took offshore trips on our boat back in Jax years ago. Weather was not as nice as forecasted, but it said the conditions would improve over the day, so I took my time packing up the boat with offshore gear and let Cindy sleep in a bit. Wind started to lay down around 9am and then we ventured out towards the south. We were met with some really confused seas in the 2-3 foot range which made it a tough ride. Decided to stop at the reef line and try some bottom bumping while we waited for the conditions to improve.
Got a chance to try anchoring and chumming in about 85 feet and had just enough rope to do it. Marked some nice fish on the bottom and proceeded to drop down some cut bait. Ended up pulling in quite a few 11.5 inch yellowtail, due to the minimum size of 12″ so the fish only grow so big 🙂 Other catches included a bunch of grunts, large tangs and one keeper mangrove which I caught on some live ballyhoo I cast netted off the back of the boat in the chum slick. Bite turned off around noon and sea conditions improved so we continued further offshore. The gulf stream is about 20 miles south of Marathon, which was our planned destination.
A slow day overall for us. Never did find any great weed lines or major floating debris, but did stop and troll around some birds and busting tuna. Had some action trolling a small feather around the tuna and caught a few little tunny. Kept one of them to fillet for some food and bait. The top loin was actually quite tasty when seared on the stovetop. Covered a lot of ground, a few tugs on the line, swimming in the clearest blue water which was enjoyable in the mid-day heat, then finished off the day with a serene ride back home to a beautiful sunset.
dinner entree consisting of sauteed snapper with lobster topping and a side of broccoli and sweet potatoes with parmesan cheese
Chris, Cindy, Charlie and Cecily’s Adventure Blog 