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Being land locked isn't fun when you hear reports from fishing friends. Best weekend in months and they rub it in your face. I know their are a lot of you here on this board that said you were going to the coast for Spring break. This is for you guys. This is second hand but from from the horses's mouth of a couple of different friends that fished out of Port A.
Boat A
This boat caught and released a blue marlin in the 200# range. That boat also boated 4 Hoo's in the 20-40# range. All caught off Ranzell's Rock while trolling. This guy said the weed lines are incredible right now. They only found one rip that had current flowing. That's the one that produced the above catches. They trolled four different rip lines with nothing. These guys are marlin fisherman. That's all they care about. No bottom fishing. They worked from 100 to 400 fathoms on Friday 3/9/07. On Sat, they went and fished both north and south Baker. Nothing on the rocks so headed to Dutra. Once again, tons of weed lines and only two Hoo's for the day. No Dolphin or billfish sited.
Boat B
They started out looking for Blackfins. He said he hit blue water 21 miles offshore. That's shallow for this time of year. This was Sat, 3/10/07. His first stop was a Shrimp boat a little inshore of Southern. Nothing at the shrimp boat. He trolled Southern rock for Hoo's, but nothing. He commented about too much grass and it was trouble keeping the lures clean. They then headed to Ant Hill. On the way they hit two more Anchored shrimp boats looking for Blackfins. Nothing.
If you have never fished Ant Hill, there are 3 rigs spaced out in about 200 to 240 foot depths. It's around 18 miles south of Southern. The first rig produced tons of kingfish. He said they were in a eating frenzy. Several Kingfish missles almost landed in their boat. When the kings are feeding on the surface, they will attack at high speeds from below. The next thing they know they are airbore around 15 feet in the air. It's really fun to watch. They deceided to pull out the poppers. The kings were all over them.They kept a few for dinner and released the rest. He said they went nuts on large silver spoon's being trolled.
These guys are just like most GOM offshore fisherman. They got introduced
to jigging last year for the first time. Since Ant Hill is know for AJ's, they started jigging. They were using Torsa's with Trevalla XXH rods. Right off the bat, the jigs were hit by big Jack Cravells. The Jacks were down about 100 feet. If you've never caught a Jack, your in for a fight. Pound for pound a pure fighter. These were the big Jacks. (30+ pounds).
Even though they are inedible, they are fun to catch. Here's the best part of their trip.
After fighting this one Jack for 20 minutes, the Jack was in visible site down below. A dark shadow appeared and the fish was half gone. The guy cranked it easily toward the boat. Remember, this is on a jig with Assist hooks. As the half eaten fish was about three feet from the boat, a very large Mako came up from nowhere and busted the surface with the Jack in his jaws. The guy told me that the Mako's Jaws were no more than three feet from his head as he broke the surface. He never saw it coming. He told me that was the closest he had ever come in life to crapping in his pants. Anyway, the mako was screaming off line like a bullet until it went limp. I told him he was probably the first guy in history have a mako on a jig with a Jack's head attached.
He summed up his trip by saying that the jigs outfished live bait. They could reach the bottom with live bait, but on AJ's. It was almost impossible the get a jig to the bottom with being hit by either a King or Jack.They did manage to get a 45 pound grouper on a jig after switching to another rig at Ant Hill. They lost all 16 jigs they brought with them by the end of the day. He is now adictted to jigging. I told him he needs to get rid of that Candy Stick Trevalla and get a manly jigging rod. He likes the rod and thinks it did a great job. I'll talk him into a decent stick by the summer.
Boat A
This boat caught and released a blue marlin in the 200# range. That boat also boated 4 Hoo's in the 20-40# range. All caught off Ranzell's Rock while trolling. This guy said the weed lines are incredible right now. They only found one rip that had current flowing. That's the one that produced the above catches. They trolled four different rip lines with nothing. These guys are marlin fisherman. That's all they care about. No bottom fishing. They worked from 100 to 400 fathoms on Friday 3/9/07. On Sat, they went and fished both north and south Baker. Nothing on the rocks so headed to Dutra. Once again, tons of weed lines and only two Hoo's for the day. No Dolphin or billfish sited.
Boat B
They started out looking for Blackfins. He said he hit blue water 21 miles offshore. That's shallow for this time of year. This was Sat, 3/10/07. His first stop was a Shrimp boat a little inshore of Southern. Nothing at the shrimp boat. He trolled Southern rock for Hoo's, but nothing. He commented about too much grass and it was trouble keeping the lures clean. They then headed to Ant Hill. On the way they hit two more Anchored shrimp boats looking for Blackfins. Nothing.
If you have never fished Ant Hill, there are 3 rigs spaced out in about 200 to 240 foot depths. It's around 18 miles south of Southern. The first rig produced tons of kingfish. He said they were in a eating frenzy. Several Kingfish missles almost landed in their boat. When the kings are feeding on the surface, they will attack at high speeds from below. The next thing they know they are airbore around 15 feet in the air. It's really fun to watch. They deceided to pull out the poppers. The kings were all over them.They kept a few for dinner and released the rest. He said they went nuts on large silver spoon's being trolled.
These guys are just like most GOM offshore fisherman. They got introduced
to jigging last year for the first time. Since Ant Hill is know for AJ's, they started jigging. They were using Torsa's with Trevalla XXH rods. Right off the bat, the jigs were hit by big Jack Cravells. The Jacks were down about 100 feet. If you've never caught a Jack, your in for a fight. Pound for pound a pure fighter. These were the big Jacks. (30+ pounds).
Even though they are inedible, they are fun to catch. Here's the best part of their trip.
After fighting this one Jack for 20 minutes, the Jack was in visible site down below. A dark shadow appeared and the fish was half gone. The guy cranked it easily toward the boat. Remember, this is on a jig with Assist hooks. As the half eaten fish was about three feet from the boat, a very large Mako came up from nowhere and busted the surface with the Jack in his jaws. The guy told me that the Mako's Jaws were no more than three feet from his head as he broke the surface. He never saw it coming. He told me that was the closest he had ever come in life to crapping in his pants. Anyway, the mako was screaming off line like a bullet until it went limp. I told him he was probably the first guy in history have a mako on a jig with a Jack's head attached.
He summed up his trip by saying that the jigs outfished live bait. They could reach the bottom with live bait, but on AJ's. It was almost impossible the get a jig to the bottom with being hit by either a King or Jack.They did manage to get a 45 pound grouper on a jig after switching to another rig at Ant Hill. They lost all 16 jigs they brought with them by the end of the day. He is now adictted to jigging. I told him he needs to get rid of that Candy Stick Trevalla and get a manly jigging rod. He likes the rod and thinks it did a great job. I'll talk him into a decent stick by the summer.
I tried to splice it back together. Now, the GPS doesn't recognize any beacons. It also asks me for the serial number every time I boot it up. It's always something. It's a Northstar and the couplings weren't available in Port A, or Corpus. I had to buy another one mail order. Hope that was the problem.
