Pointed the bow eastward and ran to the Hill to make a couple of drifts for BFT before we head out in search of some fins.
First drift on the Hill produced one hit but came unglued. Set up for the next drift and Donny’s rod goes off and fish is on.
Ends up being a Bonita.
As were getting ready to head to deeper waters, this guys shows up. Largest Porpoise I have ever seen. Pics don’t do it justice.
We head southeast and go for miles without seeing any debris or weeds. We get to just about 1300ft and finally spot what we were looking for. Large mats of weeds as far as the eye can see.
We pull up to the first patch and it is has no baits under it. Run over to the next one and it is covered up in baits. We toss out some sardine chunks and drop in some livey’s and make our first drift. No takers. Work it again with no takers.
Move on to the next matt and repeat. No takers. Thaw out some ballyhoo and start tolling and hunting under all the mats as we troll by for blue & green colors. Donny’s (dad) rod goes off and he catches a jack on a ballyhoo. Go figure…
We continue the troll going from mat to mat when Donny (son) spots some fins under a mat. We quickly tossed out a handful of chunks to keep them around and deployed some livey’s while clearing the trolling rods. FISH ON…
Chinese fire drill was on. Kept one fin in the water at all times and put 3 in the box. We drifted about 100 yards away from the mat and had one fin left on the hook with no more below us. We pulled this fin into the boat and left it on the hook and quickly ran back to the mat.
Dropped in the fin and let it swim down out of site below the mat. Donny (son) slowly cranked him back up to the boat and walla… More fins followed him back to the surface and it was Chinese fire drill once again. Boxed 3 more fins and heard a crack of thunder back from the west.
The last fin on the hook wasn’t doing too well so we opted to let it loose so it had a change of survival and ran back up to make one last drift. Dumped in the remaining chunked up baits and deployed another round of livey’s in hopes of one last fin before we head back west.
No takes and called it a day around noon. Dialed in the SLI and we were 25 miles out with a storm between us and the inlet. We held our course and the skies parted and we had an opening between two storms and make it through with only a few rain drops.
Came out the other side with the sun shining and land in site. Stop just outside the inlet to release the rest of the baits and headed for the docks.
Today’s Tally
1 Bonita
10 fins – 6 keepers from 21” to 28”
How did you all make out today?
Tip of the day
When fishing around large mats of weeds and your keeping one fin on the hook and rotating them into the box and find yourself with one left and no others around. Instead of boxing it or releasing it, drive it back to the mat and let it (while still on the hook) dive down deep below the mat and slowly reel it back up. If there are fins down there, they will follow it back to the surface.
Random pics on the day
