Left Deale on Capt John's Patent Pending (46 Markley) and headed southeast. Found a few breakers with "dinks" under the birds. Continued across the bay to Sharps Island Light area and dropped 6 lines with spreader bars and John's spoons.
A was offered a cold beer. It was still early, but hey, the fish weren't cooperating
I took a swig and rod behind me goes down hard
The clicker wasn't working (damn charter reels), but I could feel drag being taken.
I usually act as mate (although today we had a very experienced crew); but I wasn't passing this rod off to anyone
Fish hit while trolling around 5 knots. First thing we did was SLOW the boat down (no sense testing the hook, knots, or leader). Bruce, Lolo, and Phil cleared lines and Rob got the net.
We have two nets onboard, our big spring net on the roof; and the small summer net on the deck. Rob grabbed the small summer net
She started out on the starboard side after hitting a spreader out 14 bars with 8 oz. of weight. (running 5 knots brings the spreaders up in the water column)
14 bars on a Penn 340 is out there a good way (I estimate 168 ft). We were going to be lucky to get her to the boat.
As she made her way closer, she stayed deep and ran to the port side. I was letting her go wherever she wanted. No sense putting undue pressure on her this close to the boat.
Lolo caught a cobia last week on his boat, but I could tell she was a big red when she surfaced. Rob struggled to get her head in the summer net, but eventually she was boated.
I unhooked the spoon and lifted her with my Fishoff Glove in her lip for a quick photo before releasing her back to the bay. I would have liked to have measured her, but she was out of the water long enough with water temps hovering around 80*.
That was the highlight of the day
Lots of breaking fish in the bay channel, but small. We trolled and jigged trying to find some better grade of rock and blues, but only added a few fish to the cooler today
NO FLIES
So that was good.
If you haven't caught a red or cobia; they are still here. Lolo caught his cobia farther south than we were today; but hey, it's good to see some other species to target when the small rock flood the bay
Thanks to all who helped land this nice fish.
5th
Big Red
Threaded Mode