Now onto half two of Out of Season Backside Fishing journey, now that we had our lunch and eventually made it over to our subsequent spot. We put traces again out once more, half of us focusing on beeliners and the opposite half of us chasing after grouper. So I caught to my “grocery getting” tuna meat stick rig bouncing cigar minnows proper on the underside whereas Yong was sticking to his weapons together with his slow-pitch jigging setup. The others had been dropping down some hen rigs with the salted Boston mackerel and bringing in some good beeliners and different assorted backside fish. When lastly after many of the day spent jigging Yong lastly acquired hit that caught on the jig.
The fish instantly pinned him to the rail, attempting its hardest to get again right into a gap within the backside. However Yong dealt with it like a professional, utilizing his Ocea jigger to get in a crank at any time when he may to maintain the fish off the underside. These preliminary cranks will make or break a battle with an enormous fish, the tug of warfare of retaining them out of the reside backside. Finally after being run across the again of the boat a couple of occasions, he lastly acquired the fish to the floor. A pleasant monster of a gag grouper on the jig, most likely a 12 months out from turning into a copper stomach. A trophy of a gag grouper, that we then took a few images of, vented, and despatched proper again down, they had been out of season. Which sucks however the reminiscences final lots longer than the fillets.We might have gotten the load however we couldn’t discover the dimensions quick sufficient, no level in killing the fish for a weight.
After the battle, Yong wanted a break however there was nonetheless fish to catch, so the remainder of us stored hammering on the vermillion snappers. With a number of 3+ pound ones being caught, however needed to scoot off the spot quickly after. One other boat was making a beeline in direction of us, so we needed to get off the spot earlier than they might mark it for themselves. Capt. Tyler spends plenty of time and gas to seek out these far-out backside fishing spots, so I 100% perceive wanting to maintain them to himself. So after a brief journey to the subsequent spot the fishing continued.
Right here on the subsequent time, it was my flip for an out-of-season monster. I used to be nonetheless bouncing small reside baits on the underside hoping for both extra scamps or crimson grouper, when one thing huge inhaled the little cig. I may inform it was huge as a result of this was the primary fish of the day that truly began pulling drag out of my Saltiga 55. Although this wasn’t as sporting of a battle as Yong had, I used to be nonetheless fishing out of the rod holder so, all I did was push the drag lever ahead and put the reel into low gear. After that, simply winched the massive beast up. It was an enormous 18lb crimson snapper, which was out of season. Which was my private finest crimson snapper, and naturally we don’t have images of it as a result of I left the cellphone within the cabin. However whereas we had the dimensions prepared this time, once more we needed to vent the fish and ship it again down as shortly as potential. Little bittersweet to let it go, however the fish swam off nice so I can’t complain. We knew this could occur coming down right here out of season.
After the massive crimson snapper we stored working our means nearer to the dock, hitting spot after spot with primarily the hen rigs to fill out the field and attempt to get out 1 triggerfish every for the day. This was proving much more tough than anticipated, with us solely getting a bunch of quick triggers blended in with smaller crimson snapper. However at the very least we had been filling out or restrict of vermillion snapper whereas we did this. Finally, although I lastly acquired the suitable one. As an alternative of letting my baits hit backside as you’d usually for backside fishing, I counted how lengthy it took the earlier drop after which timed it to solely go midway for my subsequent drop. I’ve discovered earlier than that huge triggerfish generally sit excessive off the wrecks. That was the case this time, netting me the one authorized triggerfish of the journey.
After that it was about time to begin heading again in, so we introduced in all of the traces and began clearing the deck. After a little bit of cleansing, we put out the high-speed trolling gear and ran in direction of residence. Sadly, that wahoo by no means did present up in the course of the troll again, however hey that’s fishing. A minimum of the view and breeze had been second to none up on the tower. Oh, and one thing to notice, you must pay for parking in Destin now, it sucks however nothing you are able to do. Ensure you pay for sufficient parking earlier than you head out, I needed to pay an additional $12 as a result of I didn’t arrange sufficient parking time and had add the minimal 4 hrs whereas I used to be nonetheless 6 miles offshore from my cellphone.
I say we did fairly good for an out-of-season backside fishing journey, bringing residence loads of fish for what we may preserve. Any day you carry residence 10 scamp grouper within the kill field is an efficient day. After we cleaned the fish and loaded up the vehicles, we went again and had a pleasant fish dinner.
