After dealing with a stressful divorce for the last 12 months, I finally got a marriage separation agreement signed, and decided to treat myself to a fishing trip (It's been about 6 months since my last).
I met my buddy at the Boca Raton boat ramp at 4:15 am. We left the ramp at 4:45 and were out of the inlet by 5:15 am to fish along the beach for bait. The primary target is Goggle eyes.
Fishing was super slow. I commented to my buddy that at least we were not getting our bait rigs destroyed by Ladyfish or Spanish Mackerels and seconds later I caught a Spanish Mackerel. Normally their sharp teeth cut up our rigs causing us to lose precious pre-dawn fishing time re-rigging.
It turned out to be the only fish I caught for bait. After an hour of zilch on the beach areas, I decided to head out to the shallow wrecks in 80ft. The wrecks always hold bait on the upcurrent side. I was able to meter some good marks of bait, but it all had lockjaw.
Having zilch for bait by sunrise, My buddy decided to head back in and call it a day. I had not been out in months, so was desperate to catch something to eat, so I headed out to the deeper wrecks to see if I could jig something up.
The first stop was the HydroAtlantic wreck at 170ft. This wreck is known for holding African Pompanos. It is the only place that I have taken legal-sized African Pompanos. The wreck usually has lots of Barracudas, but I have also taken King Mackerel, Amberjack, Almacos, Wahoo, and Blackfin there. I made multiple drifts jigging on the wreck for zilch.
The next stop was an unmarked wreck in about 300ft of water that normally holds fish and does not get the pressure that decimates the fish on the charted wrecks. On my second drop, my day was made -- I got dinner.
Almaco Jack is excellent eating, in earlier years I would catch so many, that I would often throw these back to catch another day. LOL, Today was that day.
Although there were some solid marks on the wreck, the bite was super slow.
Evntually I got a big Amberjack to hit, but over the wreck with 30lb braid, all I could do is hold on and say goodbye as he brought my line down to the structure and broke me off.
After another 45 minutes of jigging, I caught one small Little Tunny. I would normally either use it as bait or throwback, but in today's slow fishing, This guy was going to be my sushi!
About an hour later, the speed jig got bit off with a 60lb leader mid-column by a toothy critter. I suspect either a Cuda, Wahoo, or King Mackerel in that order of likiness.
The bite-off inspired me to deep-troll the Spanish Mackerel. I rigged him up and slow-trolled him 150ft down with the downrigger.
I trolled the Spanish Mackerel for about 2 hours and eventually, it was bit off, I suspect a shark. After that I called it a day, heading in at 11:30 am. Back at the boat ramp, I swapped reports to learn that it was slow for everyone.:reeling:
