CrazyJ
05-30-2012, 08:47 AM
We were set all weekend that we'd stay an extra day until Tuesday to hunt the kings. We figured we'd pick up some bait on the beach then run out as far as it took to find 'em.
Coming out of Lockwood wasn't too bad even at _due_ low tide. I took a closer line to the bendigo than the day before, and 3.9 was the lowest we saw (21' sailfish).
We couldn't find any bait on the beach or anywhere within a mile or two each direction of the inlet. No other boats were out trying, and we weren't hearing much on the radio. We were thinking of running to Yaupon reef looking for bait on the way, but there was a storm brewing that direction, so we put down some little planers and screwed around the lockwood buoy for a few minutes waiting for the storm to pass. Picked up a few mid-sized blues and put them in the live well.
We figured the day was pretty much going to be a loss for any big stuff, so we ran out to AR440 just to practice for sea bass season. We haven't bottom fished offshore much before. In about 30 minutes we only hooked a little 8" sea bass-- not quite what I expected after hearing about them so thick everywhere. I guess we need a bit deeper water ... at least for any keeper sized ones.
We trolled some cigar minnows for a few minutes thinking a stray (and lost apparently) king could be fooled. Didn't happen, but our downrigger bait got a bit mangled from something, so we decided to put one of our blues down on the downrigger for a few minutes. No action there either, so we decided to head to shore for some more blues and spanish.
Well, just as we brought the last cigar minnow in, and just as I had my hand on the downrigger rod about to yank it off the clip, the clip popped itself. We were cynical in the beginning (as consistent with our luck that weekend), and at first seemed like a shark. Then he surfaced and we still thought it was a shark, but a big one, which seemed like even more of a curse, as we usually dehook them properly. But he was more stubborn than a shark. It took a while for us to even get a glimpse of him, but when we did we instantly recognized him as a Cobia. After another 10 minutes or so we got him on the boat, 45 inches long. Our first Cobia definitely made the day and weekend for us. We could have hung around and maybe picked up another one with our remaining 2 bluefish, but we decided to pack it up and head in.
Coming out of Lockwood wasn't too bad even at _due_ low tide. I took a closer line to the bendigo than the day before, and 3.9 was the lowest we saw (21' sailfish).
We couldn't find any bait on the beach or anywhere within a mile or two each direction of the inlet. No other boats were out trying, and we weren't hearing much on the radio. We were thinking of running to Yaupon reef looking for bait on the way, but there was a storm brewing that direction, so we put down some little planers and screwed around the lockwood buoy for a few minutes waiting for the storm to pass. Picked up a few mid-sized blues and put them in the live well.
We figured the day was pretty much going to be a loss for any big stuff, so we ran out to AR440 just to practice for sea bass season. We haven't bottom fished offshore much before. In about 30 minutes we only hooked a little 8" sea bass-- not quite what I expected after hearing about them so thick everywhere. I guess we need a bit deeper water ... at least for any keeper sized ones.
We trolled some cigar minnows for a few minutes thinking a stray (and lost apparently) king could be fooled. Didn't happen, but our downrigger bait got a bit mangled from something, so we decided to put one of our blues down on the downrigger for a few minutes. No action there either, so we decided to head to shore for some more blues and spanish.
Well, just as we brought the last cigar minnow in, and just as I had my hand on the downrigger rod about to yank it off the clip, the clip popped itself. We were cynical in the beginning (as consistent with our luck that weekend), and at first seemed like a shark. Then he surfaced and we still thought it was a shark, but a big one, which seemed like even more of a curse, as we usually dehook them properly. But he was more stubborn than a shark. It took a while for us to even get a glimpse of him, but when we did we instantly recognized him as a Cobia. After another 10 minutes or so we got him on the boat, 45 inches long. Our first Cobia definitely made the day and weekend for us. We could have hung around and maybe picked up another one with our remaining 2 bluefish, but we decided to pack it up and head in.