I had the pleasure of fishing with my friends Dave and Newy (Don) on Don’s 24ft Wellcraft, the “Angler Management”. We got a late start because we had to stop for fuel on the way, but that delay allowed us to meet up with some willing bait. Another friend of ours, Paul, had left earlier that us and radioed that he was having a hard time finding bait. We had to search a bit, but we did find some bait to catch with our Sabiki rigs. Apparently, the sardines, hard tails, and pin fish slept in late that morning.
After loading our live well with bait we ran to the 27 fathom line. That’s a ledge created by earth movement that runs parallel to the coast line . It is in water 160-180 ft deep. A fathom, by the way is 6ft. This ledge should be in 162ft of water if it were true to it’s name. The ledge meanders east and west as it makes it way north. It would look like a snake seen from above. This area is home to Red Snapper and various kinds of Grouper. Just the kind of fish you want to invite home to dinner.
Our first couple of stops on the ledge were not productive. As we approached lunch time, we began to have some action. I started to catch Red Snapper. Unfortunately, these snapper were shorter than the minimum size (20 inches), so we released them after asking them to invite their big brothers and sisters to “hook up” with us.
Finally, Newy got a good bite. He struggled with a good fighter for a few minutes. We were hoping that he had a big Red Snapper, but we suspected that his catch would be an Amberjack, judging by the kind of fight the fish was making. We guessed right. Newy had a nice 28lb Amberjack. We normally don’t keep these fish to eat, because they taste “fishier” than our preferred Snapper and Grouper. Dave decided to keep this one to take home to smoke. Smoked Amberjack makes very good fish dip, or so they say.
Here’s Dave with Newy’s Amberjack.
The Snapper actually began to cooperate after lunch, our lunch that is. Dave makes a great hoagie sandwich. I’ve been putting on weight since I started fishing with Dave. Anyway, as I said, the Snapper stated biting. I landed three keeper Red Snapper with Dave getting one keeper. We got these along with many other Amberjack and Lesser Amberjacks. These are two different kinds of fish in the Jack family. Like all Jacks they are great fighters. The Lesser Amberjack has a proportionately larger eye and deeper body than greater amberjack. It’s also smaller than the Greater Amberjack; hence the name.
Here’s Dave holding a couple of Red Snapper
We were too busy fishing to take pictures while we were offshore. Dave volunteered to be our topless model when we got back to the dock. I think he tells his friends that he caught all the fish we see him holding, so don’t tell his friends about my theory.
We had a fun action filled day aboard Newy’s boat. Thanks for the ride Don and thanks for lunch for the Dave. Most of all thanks for the giggles and grins. Never a dull moment for sure!
