[Bret]

Well,
despite the choppy forecast on Saturday, Pat,Jim , Jared, and I took off in search of blue water.. the latest terrifin showed the blue water up north... we headed towards baker... hit a decent weedline inshore of the aransas banks.. we stopped and dropped some jigs.. Jim picked up one chicken but the rest wouldnt bite.. we decided to troll it for a while.. as the water was green and ugly and the wind made it difficult to make a bait swim properly.. we trolled the weedline till it petered out with nothing to show.. we decided to head straight offshore and look for the blue water. we stopped on the rock to make a couple of drops to no avail. we put out our wahoo king lures and were attempting to fast troll out there, when my starboard motor alarm kept sounding.. I just couldnt get the proper trolling speed to pull them... so we put some smaller stuff and decided not to go further offshore.. the scattered weeds made it darn near impossible to troll anything... so we made it back inshore to southern and the water had less weed but was ugly green..current was ripping too... Nada.....
we left there and headed to an inshore spot and managed to pick up just one shy of a 4man limit of legal snapper and one strawberry grouper. There were some big hardtails and a couple of sharks caught too....
Never had a knockdown all day.......
All snappers and groupers were caught on jigs....

I guess it was a sucessful trip, in that nothing major broke and nobody got hurt.. we made it back to the house by 7:30// Ate some fresh snappper for dinner.. and promptly went to sleep..
I want to thank Pat for putting us up at his house and for the use of his dock.
Jim and Jared, thanks for the hard work on deck.. you guys are always welcome on my boat.. Sorry that we didnt do better on the fish count..

 

[Ragman]

Thanks for the report Bret!

 

[MrBill]

Look at the bright side. At least you got out on the water. I almost went down late Friday night for a Sat trip with a friend. I wouldn't have made it down until about 2AM, so I blew it off.

When I called him Sat night to get a fishing report, I thought I had the wrong number. The guy that answered the phone could hardly speak. I hung up and called again. Same thing, this guy was crushed. When I told him who I was, he started to pronounce a few words that I could comprehend. I guess he's off the wagon again. He stopped drinking two years ago.

Anyway, he handed off the phone to the guy I really wanted to talk to in the first place. They had a rotten day. They woke up at 5AM and started the whole process of loading up the boat. Food, beverages, bait, ice, tackle, etc.
It was 7AM before they pulled off his dock. They hadn't even left the harbor when an alarm on one of the engines started sounding off.

After two hours of trying to solve the problem, they called it a day and started unloading the boat and hauling all the stuff back into the house. It was 10AM and the decision was to have a bloody-marry. They were really crushed when I talked to them at 9PM.

I talked to couple of other boats that went out this weekend. One went inshore and only had two ling for the day. Only one was legal. They couldn't find a snapper or kingfish. The other boat went deep to dutra and east breaks. The water was good, but he said it was a slow day. Cleaning off the lures once again was a big headache. They only caught two dolphin and one hoo.

 

[Pope]

Hopefully things will get organized down there soon. I am headed down to hang with Shark in a couple of weeks and maybe I will swing further south before heading home to "help" you nail a few of these fabled hoos. They need a killin!

 

[Gunsmoke]

Blue water has moved offshore. Nice water starts little inside Falcon.

 

[Bret]

Blue water has moved offshore. Nice water starts little inside Falcon.

Yeah, we overheard some radio chatter... the guy was saying that the dumping grounds was blue but the green water had pushed back out...
We wanted to head out but with the alarm... I thought it best to head closer to the barn.
you were right... there was tons of scattered weed out there..

Are you fishing the roundup??

 

[Snagged]

So what was the alarm sounding for?

 

[Bret]

So what was the alarm sounding for?
The alarm would only sound when I was trying to fast troll... about 3000 rpms not on plane... it didnt like that.. it was ok on the regular troll and on plane.. the pressure meter is showing about 50%pressure of the port motor.
I am going to change the h20 pump again... I think I got a bad one.. I had much better h20 pressure before I changed it... If thats not it then, I will look at my t-stats and then the poppet valve.

 

[Gunsmoke]

you were right... there was tons of scattered weed out there..

Are you fishing the roundup??

No, no roundup. I used to fish it. I also had a lot of fun. I do like the rule change years back that will let anyone win the offshore division. I think you can win it with a couple of good inshore fish. Biggest King and Spanish Mack could do it. That's a good thing because it creates interest from the mosquito fleet which really looks forward to fishing the roundup. I just don't like time restraints and to be honest, I don't have any friends that want to fish it. I had some great times in the 80's fishing the roundup.

Rules are rules, and you can't have a tournament without them. If I'm way offshore at five in the evening and still have a gut feeling that a bite is going to happen, why come back home? Enjoy it. Sometimes you are marking a lot of fish on a rip but they aren't cooperating. They will turn on at some point. I like to mix big cocktail around 5 PM and wait for the action. Some of the best action is between 5 and 7 PM. It's relaxing for me and that's what it's all about. I also enjoy fighting a big fish with a buzz.

The weed is a big PITA. Sargassum stays afloat with those little round balls. They are actually gas-filled bladders which act like buoys. If you ever get bored offshore, just stick a gaff overboard and grab a floating patch. Pinch all those little balls until they are gone and toss overboard. It sinks. I hate it when its thick like this year because some of it doesn't produce enough little balls. That's the stuff that says suspended below the surface. There is a bunch of weed hanging low this year. I have a feeling it's going to be around for most of the summer. Good luck with the roundup.

 

[STx Fisherman]

Good report Bret. I am disappointed to hear about all of the problems with the offshore fishing this year....sargasm, blue water way out there. I hope that the seaweed makes for some great dorado fishing in a few weeks.

 

[Bret]

Good report Bret. I am disappointed to hear about all of the problems with the offshore fishing this year....sargasm, blue water way out there. I hope that the seaweed makes for some great dorado fishing in a few weeks.

The weather should settle into the summer pattern pretty soon.. then the fishing will be reeeel good.. (hopefully in time for the deep sea roundup in a couple of weeks.